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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

All countries to join fight against terrorism and organised crime

Belgrade/Moscow, 10 November 2006

Serbian Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic said today that ministers of justice and interior of the Council of Europe member states agreed at a conference held today that terrorism, corruption, organised crime, money laundering and human trafficking are a great global threat.

Stojkovic told Tanjug news agency after the meeting which is being held in Moscow that these are criminal acts that cannot be solved by one country, but only through full cooperation between all states.

Participants in the conference agreed that it is necessary to do everything in order to secure a quicker and more efficient execution of tasks related to legal aid and extradition, exchange of information and joint action against terrorism, organised crime, corruption, human trafficking, money laundering and cyber crime, but with the respect for protection of human rights.

The Minister said that participants in the meeting also adopted a series of conclusions of which the most important is a call on all states to ratify international conventions so that activities of all states could be harmonised.

He stated that is very important because there are differences in the legal systems of some states which might hamper execution of some tasks in the fight against perpetrators of the above-mentioned crimes.

As for cooperation with other countries in extradition and international legal aid in criminal matters, Serbia has no problems.

At this moment, Serbia has submitted 80 requests to other countries for the extradition of persons against whom criminal proceedings are conducted, or have already been sentenced in Serbia, the Minister specified. He added that some 30 to 50 persons are extradited to Serbia each year, while Serbia extradites around 15 persons a year.

Stojkovic said that one of the conclusions of the meeting that it is also necessary to secure good cooperation at lower levels - police, courts and prosecutor's offices. He advocated harmonisation of regulations, innovation of old ones and adoption of new bilateral agreements and international conventions that would be appropriate for current problems.

The Minister talked today with Russian Minister of Justice Vladimir Ustinov, who will be invited to visit Serbia in order to sign an agreement on cooperation between Serbia and Russia.

The aim of the two-day conference "Improvement of European cooperation in criminal field" is to provide possibilities for direct exchange of opinion between high-level officials and the improvement of efficiency of cooperation in criminal matters.