Nada Radovan Tomanic, 51, was arrested in Morgantown on Thursday.

According to the indictment, Tomanic served with the Zulfikar Special Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the armed conflict there in the 1990s.

The Department of Justice said, “Along with other Zulfikar Special Unit soldiers, Tomanic allegedly participated in the physical and mental abuse of Bosnian Serb prisoners targeted on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, and membership in a particular social group. The indictment alleges that, when applying for naturalization, Tomanic falsely represented that she had not persecuted anyone because of their religion, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion and had never committed a crime for which she had not been arrested.”

According to the Houston Holocaust Museum, “Starting in April 1992, Serbia set out to ‘ethnically cleanse’ Bosnian territory by systematically removing all Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks. Serbia, together with ethnic Bosnian Serbs, attacked Bosniaks with former Yugoslavian military equipment and surrounded Sarajevo, the capital city. Many Bosniaks were driven into concentration camps, where women and girls were systematically gang-raped and other civilians were tortured, starved and murdered.”

The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague has charged more than 160 people since the end of the conflict. Charges have included genocide and crimes against humanity.

“Nada Tomanic has enjoyed the privileges of U.S. citizenship for more than 10 years – privileges she allegedly obtained by lying to cover up human rights abuses she committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Justice Department will vigorously enforce our nation’s immigration laws to ensure that the United States does not serve as a safe haven for persecutors.”

Tomanic has been charged with two counts of unlawful procurement of naturalization. She faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count and automatic revocation of U.S. citizenship if convicted.

“It is alleged that this defendant shielded her past abuse of human rights and repeatedly lied during the immigration and citizenship processes to gain entry into this country and become a U.S. citizen,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery for the District of Connecticut. “I thank our investigative partners both here and in Bosnia and Herzegovina for ignoring the passage of time to ensure that justice is done.”

According to a press release from the DOJ, the FBI is investigating the case, with coordination provided by the Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Office of Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS), along with the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit.

The Justice Department thanked the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia, and the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which they said “were instrumental in furthering the investigation.”