when justice stops at the border

EXTRADITIONS IN THE BALKANS (1)
WHEN JUSTICE STOPS AT THE
BORDER
Branimir Glavas, Stanko Subotic, Ante Jelavic,Dragan Daravelski, Vladislav Tamburkovski ...
At first glance,all these people have nothing in common and perhaps have never met or
talked with each other,never worked together ...
Something still connects them and it’s the fact that they are all names from the list of people
“wanted” under suspicion for committed crime, but who can enjoy the freedom of movement
in another country thanks to their dual citizenship.
In meantime they may be arrested, but can not be delivered because the Balkan countries
do not extradite their own citizens.
For years, their images are circulating on the Internet websites for the most wanted criminals
, but despite the warrants for war crimes, murders, cigarette smuggling, money laundering or
abuse of official position, the epilogue is always the same-instead on the accused bench,
they live as free citizens.
Armed with several passports in their pockets
and a reserve plan how to evade the law,
these people are always one step ahead of
the law enforcement organs.
How do they manage to do that? Whether the
dual citizenship is a sure ticket to escape the
international justice?
Or maybe there is a hidden interest to keep
them away from the courtroom?
Daily newspaper "Dnevnik", in cooperation
with the newspaper "Vesti" from Serbia, has
detected the problems that usually occur
during the extradition of the people with dual
citizenship and also tried to answer why the
Balkan countries have fallen in their own legal
trap.
BALKAN PHENOMENOM
The Minister of Justice of Macedonia ,Mihajlo
Manevski, explains that our country is not
excluded from dealing with this specific
regional problem, but he also points out that there is a intensive work of finding solutions.
- As a country we are facing the same problems of the dual citizenship and the inability to
extradite the people who have legal procedure against them or are already sentenced. Some
are convicted with imprisonment of six or seven years, but these official verdicts can not be
exerted because the issue of dual citizenship. Even after several years the defendants are
not available for the law enforcement organs. They are asking for citizenship from other
countries and that obstructs their delivery in the country. This is a intelligent method for
abuse and a good way to avoid criminal responsibility – says Manevski.
We can agree with the Minister that it is a matter of defraud which works effectively in
practice, but still its unclear why this malversation has been tolerated by the legal system for
years.
The response of the Minister is that at the end
none of these people will manage to escape the
justice.
The State Secretary at the Serbian Ministry of
Justice, Slobodan Homen says that the problem
of the dual citizenship is a phenomenon which
has deep roots in this region.
- Very often we are dealing with cases where
soon after the beginning of the trial judges face
with the problem of the multiple citizenship and the inability to deliver the suspects in the
country. That is how the criminals are being protected- said Homen.
The Balkan countries are not encountering only with legal, but also with political problems
related with the issue of extradition. The big cases of organized crime which are in the focus
of the public are being used for political and inter-state disputes.
- On the Balkan there are current cases that create big problems when it comes to
implementation of international legal assistance. That can be clearly pointed in the case of
Branimir Glavas and the problem between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. After the
verdict in Zagreb ,he fled to BiH and after that he couldn’t be extradited. Another problem, for
example, is the one between Serbia and Croatia in the case of Ivo Pukanic and not to
mention the dozen cases among Serbia-Montenegro - explains Secretary Homen.
THE JUSTICE AS A VICTIM OF THE POLITICS
The first conclusion in our research was that, from legal aspect,the countries are doing
everything or trying to do everything which is in their power to facilitate the extradition documents are processed and translated, proofs and examples from the criminal laws are
sent together with the enquiries for the delivery of criminals ...
Despite all these formalities at the end, however, there are
no or very few actual extraditions of people with dual
citizenship.
That the politics are deeply involved in this issue is
demonstrated by the fact that when our dictaphones were
switched off, a dozen of interlocutors have said the same
thing: If there is a political will, the problem will be solved in
no time.
But when the recorders were switched on again,the word
politic was magically erased and the stage was once more
reserved for the legal system as a main obstacle in the process.
Croatia has the same problem with extraditions, no matter if its a question of delivering the
citizens wanted in that country, or the extradition of its nationals abroad.
-All countries in the region are prohibiting the extradition of its nationals in another country.
Somewhere this matter is governed by the Constitution,and somewhere it is the laws. But in
general, all the countries from the region are supporting the idea of signing bilateral
agreements that would allow the extradition of their citizens. That will be a possible solution
of all the cases in the area of organized crime and the corruption as one of the biggest
problems for the countries in the region - said Vesna Dovranic from the Croatian Ministry of
Justice.
In principle, the judicial authorities in any country should work independently, but because of
this problem it can be concluded that the court is largely dependent on politics. Why?
The first reason is that while the judges are prosecuting the criminals in absence, politicians
"work" on solving the problem ... they are the ones who often use the official visits to mention
the issues about the extradition of the dozens of wanted criminals in the region and the
procuration of the important documents for the dual citizenship which are usually forgotten in
some drawer, covered with dust.
Those same politicians will be signing the contracts which will only be the starting point in
solving the problem.
CORRUPT CONNECTIONS
In our study we have detected
problems with extradition in Macedonia,
Croatia and Serbia, but also Bosnia
and Herzegovina and Montenegro can
be placed in the same box since they
also do not extradite its own citizens
nor can "import” the criminals who
posses citizenship of a another Balkan
country.
If the political will is so important, as it
has been said by our interlocutors, then
we asked the experts whether some
tactics are being used in the extradition
process of the suspected criminals in
Macedonia, or whether they are just
buying time since they can not solve
this problematic for so many years.
- It is most certain that in this actual circumstances, certain formal and legal barriers are
being used to prevent the extradition of the defendants for which the court has already
announced a warrant. All this can be overcomed with the harmonization of the laws of the
countries in the region with the international principles and with signing of bilateral
agreements. However, this requires strong will for disabling the various corrupt connections,
which were obviously actively stimulated in this past period- says the criminology expert Dr.
Miodrag Labovic
His colleague Dr. Marijan Koteski,professor at the Police Academy in Macedonia, agrees that
tactics are being used in the process of delivering the suspects.
- The extradition is strategically addressed because of some interest,which need not to be of
material nature-is the brief explanation of the professor.
Although this problem becomes even "more serious", the politicians in the region are trying
to relativize it claiming that its not unsolvable, but actually the are the main culprits for its
appearance and escalation.
After all, the logical question is whether the extradition is a legal or political decision?
- Extradition is a purely political decision. I think that all the countries have good judicial
systems that are prepared to prosecute the criminals. This is not the era of the 90’s,because
in the meantime a lot of significant changes have been made. So its only a matter of good
political will to develop a quality international cooperation – says Homen.
If it is like its said by the State Secretary of Serbia, and we have no reason to believe that it
is not true, then why this international cooperation does not exists in practice? On this, our
interlocutors gave us a bunch of political responses like "we are doing everything we can" or
"our country consistently follows the Constitution and laws" or "The problem is not up to us”.
What's the life like for the fugitives
The life of fugitives from the justice in the country where they have found
shelter is always almost identical with their lifestyle in their homeland.
They work normally, have their own home, pay taxes, socialize with friends
and family ... They only never cross the border in the state where they are
wanted ... Former first customs officer of Macedonia Dragan Daravelski,
has a business firm "ITZ Center" located on the Krunska street in Belgrade,
although he is sentenced to prison in Macedonia. He refused to talk to us,
but still we managed to reach Dr. Vlado Dimov who accepted to give us his
statement.
The Former Minister of health,Dimov is a renowned surgeon in the hospital,
"Tokuda" in Sofia,Bulgaria. That is how he was treated in the Bulgarian
consulate in Warsaw, last year when he was arrested in Poland after an
international arrest warrant was issued by the Macedonian authorities.
Dimov is a surgeon for mini-invasive surgery and is constantly occupied, so
it was really hard to get in touch with him.
- I often have patients from Macedonia and they all know that I do not run
away from justice - said Dr. Dimov.
Former bankruptcy manager Vladislav Tamburkovski, who in Macedonia is
sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison, was a lecturer at one faculty in
Bulgaria. He was using different identity, although his image was both on
the police warrants in Macedonia and the website of the faculty in Bulgaria.
NO PROBLEMS IN SLOVENIA
We also asked the Slovenian Minister of Justice Aleš Zalar, whether Slovenia, as the only EU
member from the Former Yugoslav republics, is encountering the same problems.
- According to the Constitution of Slovenia, the extradition of the citizens of Slovenia is not
allowed. There is only a permission for transfer of nationals from other EU Member States in
order of the European warrant for arrest and surrender, but not to third countries - explains
the Slovenian Justice Minister Aleš Zalar.
published in newspaper "Dnevnik" http://www.dnevnik.com.mk/defaultmk.asp?ItemID=097EC670AF6FAB4CB746B361E4B28FE3&arc=1
(The transnational research project is supported by the Danish Association for
Investigative Journalism and the project SCOOP)
Aleksandar Manasiev
Branimir Djokic
NEXT: PEOPLE WITH SPARE HOMELAND