Serbia: Stolen Gold To Go to Charity

Thousands of gold necklaces, bracelets, earrings and other jewellery seized from criminal suspects will be melted down to create gold bars and donated to charity, Slobodan Homen, the Serbian Government's coordinator for public relations, has told Balkan Insight.

The Ministry of Justice is currently collecting gold that was seized all over Serbia illegally. Until now, it had been kept in the courts where it was confiscated.

As the value of gold collected is still being assessed, it has not been possible to estimate the total number of bars that will be produced when it is all melted down.

A few weeks ago, Homen said that about 30 kilograms of gold had been collected from courts all over the country , according to first assessments . The price of 17 carat gold is about 30,000 euros per kilo.  

The largest quantity of gold was found in the Serbian town of Pirot, where police seized about nine kilos of gold from smugglers.

The government is yet to make an agreement about the size of gold bars, the way they will be sold and what the money will be spent on.

However, the money gained from criminal gold will most probably be spent on medical treatments for children, purchase of incubators and other charities.

After passing the Law on Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime, which came into force on March 1, 2009, Serbian authorities said that the goal of the seizure of property is to help those facing difficult life circumstances.

If suspects are found guilty, the seized assets become state property. If a suspect is brought to trial and found not guilty, the state is required to give back what it seized.