Judicial co-operation: a must for integration

16/07/2007

Because criminals operate across boundaries, countries in Southeast Europe have to work together in order to bring them to justice. Macedonia and Serbia provided an example recently by collaborating in two major cases.

By Zoran Nikolovski for Southeast European Times in Skopje – 16/07/07

EU and NATO membership depend on judicial co-operation. [SE Times illustration]

Across Southeast Europe, judicial reform and the fight against organised crime are key to integration prospects. Especially because criminal operations cross borders, co-operation among countries is vital. Macedonia and Serbia recently provided noteworthy examples of such co-operation, working together on two high profile criminal cases.

In January, Serbian police arrested Stanislava Cocorovska-Poletan on charges of smuggling nearly 500kg of cocaine into Macedonia. Poletan, who has dual Macedonian-Serbian citizenship, was living in Serbia at the time. After the authorities in Skopje issued an international warrant for her arrest, Serbian police detained her. According to authorities, Poletan has been involved in cigarette and alcohol smuggling since the Milosevic era.

In June 2006, police in Belgrade arrested Metodija Smilenski, a businessman suspected of fraud and irregularities that caused damages amounting to 50m euros. Smilenski, who has dual Macedonian and Austrian citizenship, was apprehended during a routine check. A day before the one-year deadline for extradition expired, Smilenski was handed over to the Macedonian authorities. The Macedonian Prosecutor's Office expects that Smilenski's statements may open up leads to current and former high level officials who were involved as protectors or partners in his dealings.

Officials say such judicial co-operation sends a powerful message to criminals, warning that they will no longer be able to seek protection by slipping across a frontier, and that their behaviour will not be tolerated – in any country.

Due to co-operation among institutions and authorities, all those who have committed criminal acts will be held accountable for their crimes, Macedonian Justice Minister Mihajlo Manevski recently vowed.

The recent momentum towards co-operation can be attributed to the countries' EU and NATO membership bids. Membership in the two international organizations is conditioned on establishing an independent judiciary sectors and mounting an efficient fight against crime. A weak judiciary and lack of regional and bilateral co-operation makes fighting organised crime impossible.

"Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro, as well as other countries in the region, have no other alternative except the already existing regional coalition to counter criminal undergrounds with much better organisation, compared to the previous period of intergovernmental co-operation," former Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski said in an interview last year.

Macedonian police transfer Stanislava Cocorovska-Poletan, the alleged organiser of a record cocaine shipment, from a border checkpoint building to a police vehicle on May 10th. [Getty Images]

Many regional leaders have expressed similar viewpoints at meetings held under the auspices of the EU, NATO, the Stability Pact and the European Council.

Last year, a Moscow conference organised by the European Council ended with a pledge to launch a more successful fight against crime – particularly through more effective criminal proceedings. Among the strategies discussed was the creation of a database listing the existing procedures in participant countries related to different types of crime, and formation of a network of contact persons.

In February of last year, the justice and interior ministers of ten countries in Southeast Europe agreed to strengthen co-operation in fighting organised crime, human trafficking and terrorism. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro and Turkey pledged to adapt their laws to meet EU and Council of Europe standards. The ministers also agreed to set up working groups of prosecutors and police officers investigating organised crime at both national and regional levels.

The EU and NATO have set up programmes targeted towards increasing co-operation through education and training. A series of projects for judge training, budgeting, institutional development, creation of new judiciary institutions and witness protection programmes have been held across the region through the EU CARDS Programme.

Countries in the region must overcome weaknesses and accomplish better co-operation for a number of reasons. Firstly, independent and reliable judiciary is a key to institutional stability. Secondly, an effective and fair judiciary system is even more important for boosting economic development and attracting foreign investment. Thirdly, judiciary systems in the region tend to be sluggish and have numerous unsolved, outdated cases. The failure of these systems fosters lack of citizen confidence in the government and its institutions. This, in turn, leads to further crime and corruption, so that a vicious circle is created.

Experts stress that borders, nationalities and religion should not be barriers to apprehending criminals. What is criminally unacceptable in one country should not be tolerated in another. Collaboration on the judicial issue will strengthen each country individually, thus boosting the outlook for the region as a whole. At the same time, success at the regional level will also bolster the prospects for individual countries.