The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department said Friday that a federal grand jury in the District of Idaho returned an indictment last week charging Miran Kostic, 66, of Boise, Idaho, a national of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with attempting to fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship. Prosecutors say Kostic lied in citizenship applications and interviews by failing to disclose his alleged role in abusing prisoners and by concealing war-crimes charges filed against him in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The indictment also charges him with making material false statements to law enforcement agents. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-bosnia-and-herzegovina-charged-attempting-fraudulently-obtain-us-citizenship))

According to the Justice Department, Kostic was a high-level official in the so-called Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia. The release says he pistol-whipped prisoners, beat them with clubs, stakes, and his fists, forced prisoners to beat one another, and ordered others to join in the abuse. The department says he repeated those denials during applications and interviews with the FBI and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Kostic is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-bosnia-and-herzegovina-charged-attempting-fraudulently-obtain-us-citizenship))

The Idaho case is criminal, not a denaturalization action. That distinction matters. Denaturalization cases are civil lawsuits that seek to revoke citizenship already granted, and the department separately announced on July 20 that it had filed denaturalization actions against 10 naturalized citizens in the prior 30 days. The Kostic indictment does not do that; it accuses him of lying in the process of trying to obtain citizenship in the first place. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-moves-revoke-us-citizenship-10-naturalized-criminals-including-child))

If convicted, Kostic faces up to 10 years in prison on each attempted naturalization fraud count and up to five years on the false-statements charge, according to the Justice Department. The case is being handled by the Criminal Division, the U.S. attorney’s office in Idaho, the FBI, ICE Homeland Security Investigations, and other federal partners. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-bosnia-and-herzegovina-charged-attempting-fraudulently-obtain-us-citizenship))