Coe Calls on Serbia to Consistently Apply Warsaw Convention

Money Laundering (Pixabay)

While Serbia has accepted the Council of Europe's guideline that the burden of proof in cases of money laundering falls upon the suspect, who must demonstrate the origin of seizable property, it remains unclear how this guideline is applied, the latest CoE report reads.

The CoE has recommended that member countries require money laundering suspects to prove the lawful origins of  their property while Serbia is among 16 countries that have already pledged to apply this rule in practice. Consequently, in serious cases, the burden of proving the origin of specific pieces of seizable property is now up to the suspects.

The CoE report notes that Serbia's Law on seizing property gained unlawfully defines the confiscation procedure and explicitly transfers the burden of proof to the suspect if their assets are in major disproportion to their income.

However, CoE rapporteurs were unable to assess the efficiency of enforcing this legislation in Serbia as they neither have any statistics nor cases to look at and concluded by calling on the Serbian authorities to consistently carry out the guidelines and thereby build the required court practices.