05/12/2024
Belgrade hosted the II Forum of Judges and Prosecutors of Serious and Organized Crime to address the practical challenges of prosecuting and trialing serious crimes in the context of organized crime.
Representatives of the Serbian and EU judiciary and prosecution share experiences on serious and organized crime. Within the framework of the European project to support Serbia in the fields of justice, freedom and security, this event has been a dynamic space for the exchange of experiences between representatives of the Serbian judiciary and prosecution, as well as for sharing knowledge with their EU counterparts.
The first edition of the Forum was held in 2023, also with support from the European project. Serbian institutions have ensured the continuity of this format, working closely with the project to organize and hold the II Forum of Judges and Prosecutors for Serious and Organized Crime. This meeting provided a valuable opportunity for technical discussion, facilitating the exchange of technical views among practitioners.
The EU Serbia 2024 Report highlights that, in terms of the fight against organized crime, Serbia needs to increase effectiveness in the pursuit and prosecution of serious and organized crime cases, including money laundering cases and the seizure and confiscation of criminal assets through the systematic tracking of money flows, the effective use of financial investigations and special investigative measures, and the systematic use of extended confiscation.
In recent years, Serbia has made a significant legislative and institutional effort to combat serious and organized crime. However, the final judicial results in criminal cases do not reflect this effort, despite the fact that the legislative framework provides for useful tools to fight serious and organized crime.
In light of this situation, representatives of the Serbian judiciary and prosecution, specialized in serious and organized crime, have stressed the need for a regular joint forum between members of the judiciary and prosecution, with the aim of exchanging technical views and experiences on the specific challenges of their work. This regular forum for discussion will greatly contribute to achieving a higher number and quality of indictments by prosecutors in serious and organized crime cases, and could also contribute to increasing the number of proceedings being tried in high-profile serious and organized crime cases.
Serbian judiciary and prosecution exchanges expertise with EU counterparts
The II Forum of Judges and Prosecutors for Serious and Organized Crime has been opened by the Supreme Court Judge Bojana Paunović and the Prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Miljko Radisavljević.
This meeting in Serbia was made possible thanks to the efforts of Serbian prosecutor’s offices and courts specialized in the fight against corruption and organized crime, as well as the project team. In addition, the contributions of EU counterparts have been instrumental to the success of the event, as Serbian judges and prosecutors had the opportunity to engage in active discourse with high-level Spanish representatives of the judiciary and prosecution. Among them were judges and prosecutors such as Javier Hernández García, Rosa Ana Morán Martínez, José Ángel Martí Vento and Belén Dorremochea Fernández.
