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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia to receive codified Penal Code after century and a half

Belgrade, 22 September 2005

Serbian Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic said today that Serbia will, for the first time since 1860, receive a Penal Code that envisages a complete criminal law laying out the most serious criminal offences.

Zoran Stojkovic

Author: Fonet

In an interview to the Tanjug news agency, Stojkovic said that the Penal Code will cover almost all material regulations for general and specific acts, with about 400 articles.

He said that the new Penal Code will clearly define what is regulated by criminal law, it will facilitate the work of courts and prosecutors, and it will explain to citizens what a criminal offence is and when one has been committed.

Stojkovic pointed out that there has been a complete break with the Soviet, Stalinist practice and that all criminal acts have received a modern definition - what is prescribed by the law as a criminal act, and their sanctions.

Stojkovic said that new sanctions have been introduced (useful civic service and the revoking of driver’s licenses), as well as two novelties in sentencing.

The Minister said that a 40-year jail sentence was until now anticipated only for qualified heavier forms of serious criminal offences. However, it was omitted that especially heavy offences exist with no qualified form, for example genocide.

He said that these changes also cover such cases and a difference was established between different perpetrators of heavy criminal offences. In addition, judges will be able to pass a maximum jail sentence of 30 to 40 years, based on various circumstances, in contrast to current sentences ranging between 20 and 40 years.

Stojkovic said that one of the most significant mechanisms for achieving efficiency and speediness of courts is the introduction of mediation and a three-year sentence for low-level offences, making it possible to resolve cases by settling and without burdening the state.

There is also a tendency towards the strengthening of the role of fines, which have shown to have more efficient means than others, said the Minister, and he gave examples of several western countries where citizens are much more afraid of fines, since they are fast, efficient and collected by state bodies in a very simple manner.

Stojkovic recalled that the Code incorporates an array of international conventions, and several new crimes have been added, such as human trafficking, objective and chain-of-command responsibility, as well as those relating to protection of e-commerce and issues of intellectual property and copyrights.

He added that aside from terrorism, the Code covers the financing of terrorism and money laundering.

Stojkovic said that prison sentences for slander and libel have been scrapped.

He said that five bills defining the field of criminal justice are in the parliament, including a bill on juvenile delinquency and a bill on measures to protect witnesses.

“We have a working group drafting a comprehensive law on criminal proceedings (ZKP), modelled after such laws in European countries and due to be introduced in the parliament in December”, said Stojkovic.

The new ZKP, with significant help from Europe, chiefly Italy, will include a thoroughly elaborated section on combat against organised crime.

“Italy’s state prosecutor in the fight against mafia has sent us all the documents and everything that should be done and we will have a perfect, new ZKP, in line with European standards,” he stressed.

Witness protection, which will be approved by a committee made up of representatives of police, prosecution, and the courts, is the subject of another key bill for the prosecution of organised crime and war crimes.

The special prosecutor for organised crime and war crimes will be chosen by the parliament, rather than appointed by the state prosecutor without background checks, according to Stojkovic.

Western countries have pledged to help finance the setting up of a special witness protection unit in the initial period but programmes will eventually have to be funded by the state, he explained.

A bill also envisages dealing with the increasing amounts of juvenile delinquents through rehabilitation programmes involving education and social integration for minors after they have served prison sentences, said Stojkovic.

“The bill has been drafted for two years and welcomed by all countries as a very modern model of a law”, said Stojkovic adding that it is also necessary to amend the Law on the enforcement of penalties in order to protect certain persons from torture and enable better resocialisation.