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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Ministries of the Interior, Justice present results of their work in 2004

Belgrade, 7 March 2005

Serbian Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic and Minister of Interior Dragan Jocic presented today the results of their ministries in the past year at a press conference held at the Serbian government.

Jocic said that the Ministry of Interior (MUP) achieved significant results in the fight against crime. This year, the police confiscated 2.5 tonnes of drugs, which is a total several times than that of the past several years, cut off 27 drug smuggling and several human trafficking rings, cleared up 74 percent of murders, 70 percent of serious robberies and 93 percent of extortion cases.

The police also recorded a few successful operations against piracy, confiscating some 700,000 pirated discs as well as the equipment for their production.

The Minister of Interior said that one of the most important results was the taking over jurisdiction for securing the state border from the army. The border will now be demilitarised and European in design.

Jocic explained that the yet to be established Criminal Intelligence System of the Ministry of Interior, which will be formed with the assistance of experts from Sweden and the OSCE, will not constitute a special unit or new secret service.

The main field of activity of the Criminal Intelligence System will be intelligence analytics, meaning that it will gather and process all crime-related data coming from the MUP, the Department for the Fight Against Organised Crime, the Security and Intelligence Agency and the Military-Security Agency.

Jocic added that a Law on citizenship was adopted and the draft law on police completed. This draft law has been harmonised with European standards and supported by the Council of Europe and should enter parliamentary proceedings soon.

Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic said that in 2004 the Ministry prepared one of the most important documents for the reform of the Serbian judiciary and that it will serve to establish the basics to the reform strategy. The Ministry also initiated and actively participated in the process of adoption of the Draft National Strategy for the Fight Against Corruption.

Stojkovic said that the legislative framework of the reform included amendments to 34 laws, of which 14 were adopted. The laws adopted are the Criminal Code, the Law on civil procedure, the Law on enforcement procedure and the Law on offences. These are systemic laws that serve as a basis for work to all judicial bodies in the country.

Another very important result achieved through changes of legal provisions is that evidence collected by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia can be used before local courts. This has created conditions for transferring cases of The Hague Tribunal to domestic courts. Also, from January 1, 2005, conditions were created for transferring jurisdiction of the military courts to courts of the Republic of Serbia.

Stojkovic said that salaries of judiciary office holders were increased by 25.7 percent and for other employees in the judiciary, they were increased 38.2 percent. The state invested 124 million dinars in the reconstruction of court buildings and changes in the system of collection of court fees resulted in a 30 percent increase in those revenues.

The Minister said that special attention was paid to the reform of the system of penal institutions in Serbia. The adoption of the Law on enforcement of penalties is underway. Furthermore, in association with the OSCE, the first Centre for Training of Prison Staff was opened at the Correctional Institution in Nis.

Substantial funds were also invested in the reconstruction of jails and prisons. Heating problems have finally been solved and an information system has been set up, Minister Stojkovic said.