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20. 06. 2014

OSCE: PREVENT INFORMATION "LEAKAGE"

20.6.2014. (RTS) - Peter Burkhard, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, called on the police and prosecutor's office in Serbia to prevent "leakage" of information from investigations into media as this can jeopardize successful conduct of criminal proceedings.

Presumption of innocence entails that the defendant is not presented in the public as a perpetrator of a criminal offense until so proven, warned Burkhard at the opening of a regional conference on prosecutorial investigations, Fonet reports.

Burkhard added that it must not be forgotten that the prosecutor is key at the investigation stage and therefore the prosecutor's cooperation with the police is crucial.

A larger part of investigation is not public and therefore human rights should be protected, noted Burkhard.

Talking about prosecutorial investigations, Radomir Ilić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, underlined that there are clear reasons why Serbia has opted for this concept "with all its virtues and shortcomings".

"We are living with a large degree of criminality and an increase in terrorism. Therefore the state must be much stronger. The edge of the state should be able to cut all the problems", said Ilić.

Secretary Ilić added that the Ministry of Justice must follow the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Code and, if necessary, suggest amendments to it.

Ilić, however, stressed that not all is in the normative part, but the prosecutor's office must be strengthened and reformed and enable investigations to be led in a proper way in coming years.