Prosecutor: Serbia Needs Civil Confiscation of Property, Prosecutorial Police and Protection for Whistleblowers

Bojana Savovic (BetaPhoto/Media Center Belgrade)

Prosecutor Bojana Savovic said on Nov. 5 that, among other things, Serbia needs civil confiscation of property, a legal institution in which court proceedings for seizing property do not deal in establishing an individual's criminal liability, but proving that money, real estate, vehicles or other possessions have illegal origins or served to carry out a crime.

"We need the civil confiscation of property, prosecutorial police, the vetting of judges and prosecutors, the protection and rewarding of whistleblowers," Savovic told the latest edition of Nedeljnik. Asked about checking the origin of property abroad, as well as indications that money is being "taken out of the country" after the change of government in elections, Savovic said that the Authority for Preventing Money Laundering plays a key role in this as well as that the Law on confiscating property derived from illegal actions envisages the confiscation of assets abroad as well.

Savovic added that she had expected certain changes after the elections but that "the speed of the how events have played out has positively surprised me," adding that the examples of Alta Banka, the arrest of certain police officials and the potential destruction of documents in public institutions revealed how "rotten the system that we lived in was."

Asked whether there should be resignations in institutions even if existing structures begin doing their job as well as whether prosecutors that could be ousted could be called to account for inaction, she replied: "Of course." "Not saying anything and the inaction of people in key positions is what led us to this situation, state capture and a mafia at the helm of the country," Savovic said.