Serbia Puts Criminals' Assets to Good Use

Jugoslav Stojiljkovic, head of Serbia's Directorate for the Management of Confiscated Property, says his office has seized 350 million euros' worth of assets from alleged criminals in the past two-and-a-half years, since the directorate came into existence.

Stojiljkovic says Serbia stands to derive great benefits from the seizure of this property and assets. “In most cases the assets are used to address humanitarian and social problems facing citizens in our country,” he said.  

Pointing to some examples of this, he noted the current use of the Tartarsko Brdo building in Vojvodina, which used to belong to the alleged drugs dealer Darko Saric who is now on the run. The facility now houses children with cancer along with their parents.

In July, another of Saric’s villa in the northern town of Sremska Kamenica was turned into a home for orphaned teens.

Serbia's Law on Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime came into force on March 1, 2009.

The law empowers the Directorate, which operates under the supervision of the Justice Ministry, to manage the seized assets until a final verdict is given on the suspect.

If the suspect is brought to trial and then found not guilty, the state must return any seized property in its original state, which is why major changes to these buildings cannot be made.

Balkan Insight has learned from the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime that there are plans to change the law, enabling the fight against organized crime to be financed from funds from seized property as well. The changes would additionally mean that money from these assets could be used also to compensate victims of crime.