The Ministry of Justice worked diligently in the past year on the strengthening of the criminal justice system of the Republic of Serbia, and the result of this work are three major legal projects, said the Minister of Justice, Nikola Selaković, today at the opening of 55th Symposium of the Serbian Association for Criminal Law and Practice, held from 17 to 19 September in Zlatibor.
Selaković pointed out that the first place is occupied by amendments to the Criminal Code that focus on a complete review of Chapter “Offences against Economic Interests” and on the review of a possibility to introduce life imprisonment. “A public discussion about the mentioned amendments already lasts for 4 months, and its objective is to consider in detail the legal solutions proposed by the working group” Selaković said and added that the amendments were created by people having full expertise and professional integrity.
Regarding the second legal project the Minister has been involved in – the Draft Law on the Organisation and Competences of State Authorities in Combating Organised Crime and Corruption, Selaković pointed out that this law refers to several very important novelties.
“The first most important thing is continuing specialised training of judges and prosecutors and creating separate divisions in prosecutor’s offices which will be involved in combating corruption and financial crime” Selaković pointed out. He added that the second pillar of the reform under this law is considerably improved communication and coordination of operation of state authorities. “In accordance with the concept of a prosecutor’s office investigation, a prosecutor shall be the one who is leading it and relying on the help of the police and experts in the field of fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, customs duties and customs regulations, financial forensics“ Selaković explained. He also added that the plan is to create special task groups that will be led by the public prosecutor who will, in coordination with other state authorities, work more efficiently on conducting the investigation. Selaković stated that the third pillar of the new Law is that it envisages much more organised training system because knowledge is what is missed the most.
In terms of the third legal project – the Law on Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime, Selaković said that this law is good but that he is not satisfied with its application. Selaković pointed out that amendments to the Law were made and that they will improve its application, however, that this neither will yield in satisfactory results unless judicial authorities apply this Law in a consistent and effective manner.
“The law that is extremely important for the fight against corruption, and whose drafting is under way and involves diligent work of the Ministry of Justice, is the Law on the Origin of Property” Selaković said. He also added that this Law is quite an unknown field in our region and, therefore, a very sensitive topic, and he believes that this Law will create a good basis, like the Law on Protection of the Right to a Trial, within a reasonable time, of which Selaković is extremely proud.
In the end, Selaković pointed out that the Law on Protection of the Right to a Trial has an objective to really provide to the citizens protection of the right to a trial within a reasonable time and to prevent pending of a large number of cases in the Serbian judiciary, and he added that the success of this Law depends on the people who will apply it.