United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announces today that Sanel Rustemovic, age 29, of Riverdale, Maryland pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow to obstruction of justice.

 

According to the agreed statement of facts presented to the court, Sanel Rustemovic lived

 

in Prince George’s County, and his brother, Amel Rustemovic, lived with him. On July 18, 1998 a child was born in Berlin, Germany. A petition was filed on behalf of the child on August 8, 2001seeking a determination that Amel Rustemovic is the child’s father and support payments. On November 14, 2003 Judge Clausen-Schmidt of the

Local Court of Amtsgericht Tempelhof-Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany

issued a request to have a blood sample taken from Amel Rustemovic, who had denied paternity and had declined to provide a blood sample voluntarily.

 

According to the agreed statement of facts, on November 12, 2004, United States Magistrate Judge Charles B. Day appointed an Assistant United States Attorney as a Commissioner to collect evidence and take other actions required to execute Judge Clausen-Schmidt’s request. The Commissioner issued a subpoena compelling Amel Rustemovic to appear before the federal court in Greenbelt to provide a blood sample. On December 29, 2004 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation served the subpoena on Amel Rustemovic, which required Amel Rustemovic to appear in court on January 24, 2005 to provide the blood sample. Defendant Sanel Rustemovic witnessed the service of the subpoena, reviewed the subpoena and knew that it related to his brother’s German paternity proceeding.

 

 

The agreed statement of facts further provides that on December 29, 2004, Amel Rustemovic flew from Dulles International Airport to Vienna, Austria. He returned to Dulles International Airport from Vienna on March 22, 2005. During his absence, Sanel Rustemovic spoke with an Assistant United States Attorney and represented himself to be Amel Rustemovic for purposes of negotiating the time and place of compliance with the subpoena. He negotiated several postponements.

 

On May 3, 2005, Sanel Rustemovic appeared before a Commissioner and a medical technician at the Prince George’s Hospital Center. He provided a blood sample and fingerprint which he falsely represented to be from Amel Rustemovic, and falsely signed a declaration in the name of Amel Rustemovic. A laboratory in Hamburg, Germany tested the blood sample and concluded that the donor could not be the father of the child, but that there was a very high probability that the donor was a brother of the father of the child. Sanel Rustemovic later admitted misrepresenting himself to be Amel Rustemovic and providing a blood sample in his brother’s name.

 

 

Sanel Rustemovic faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Judge Chasanow has scheduled sentencing for January 5, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their investigative work and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Berman, who is prosecuting t