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Belgrade – According to Tanjug, several members of the Veljko Belivuk organized crime group are offering cooperation to the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office.
Source: Tanjug
Tanjug / AP Photo / Darko Vojinovic
To provide information, they requested the status of collaborator accused-witness.
It is not yet known if these agreements will be reached and with how many people, and the president of the Association of Judges and Prosecutors of Serbia, Nenad Stefanovic, explains to Tanjug the process they would have to go through to obtain accusation status. associates.
He hopes that some members of the Belivuk group will receive this status, noting that it is used mainly to prove serious crimes, which are also imputed to this group, which include aggravated murder, kidnapping, illicit production, possession, carrying and trafficking of weapons, and explosives , unauthorized production and distribution of narcotic drugs … and others.
Stefanović points out that the prosecutor, when choosing such a witness from among the members of an organized criminal group, takes into account mainly two conditions provided by law.
The first is that he is not a person for whom there is already a well-founded suspicion that he is the organizer of the group, and the second is the importance of the testimony of that witness to detect, prove or prevent other acts of the same group.
“Before concluding the agreement on testimonies, the prosecutor will invite the defendant to, within a period not exceeding 30 days, independently and personally, with as much detail as possible, truthfully describe everything he knows about criminal offenses, as well as other serious crimes. criminal offenses. “, says Stefanović, who is also the deputy prosecutor of the Belgrade High Prosecutor’s Office.
The agreement with the accused-associate, as he adds, must contain, among other things, an agreement on the type and measure or range of punishment or other sanction that will be imposed, or on the release of the sentence or on the obligation to that the prosecutor abandon the criminal process by testifying in the main trial.
On the other hand, the defendant’s associate has the obligation that the defendant fully confess the crime, give a statement about everything he knows about the crime and not remain silent.
You will be advised that the expediency of the exemption from the duty to testify and the exemption from the duty to answer certain questions cannot be invoked.
Stefanović notes that in the case of the Belivuk group, if an agreement is reached, the investigating judge of the Special Department for Organized Crime of the Belgrade High Court (Special Court) would decide on the matter.
Subsequently, the provisions of the Associate Protection Program Law, which regulates the conditions and procedure to provide protection and assistance to an associate witness who is exposed to danger to life, health, or physical integrity for giving testimony or information important to credit. in criminal proceedings, it would apply to that accused associate witness, freedom or property, Stefanović noted.
The first cooperating witness in Serbia was Ljubisa Buha Cume, on average against the Zemun clan for murder, extortion, kidnapping and other serious crimes.
In that process, defendants Miladin Suvajdžić and Dejan Milemnković Bagzi were also granted collaborating witness status, who, unlike Buha, entered the witness protection program.
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