Mr. Zoran Minic, WOLEP member, Serbia: “Criminal law is the backbone of every legal system. It is the ultimate weapon of defense of society's values”

WOLEP: Please introduce yourself and your professional background in a few phrases, in order for your WOLEP colleagues to get to know you better.

Zoran Minic: First of all, it is nice to be a WOLEP member. My name is Zoran Minic, I am an attorney-at-law from Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. I have been practicing law since 2011, when I became a member of the Belgrade Bar Association. Before that, I had been working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for three years. Immediately after law school, I started my trainee program in the District Prosecutor's office in Belgrade. So, as you see, I was interested in criminal law from the very beginning.

WOLEP: What led you to embrace Criminal Law as a main specialization? What was the deciding factor in taking this route?

Zoran Minic: In my youth days, criminal law was practically a synonym for the law. And the criminal law profession was law profession in its core in my book, when I was much younger. It is the backbone of every legal system, in my opinion. It is the ultimate weapon of defense of society's values. At the same time, it is a measure and a call for protection of human rights and dignity. Moreover, the simple truth is that I am quite the adventurous type! I like dynamic jobs. On the other hand, I consider criminal procedure as the most responsible and most important part of any legal system. So, it is a very demanding call for me, and challenging at the same time. The other thing is that I think that my talents are right where they should be, in order to do criminal law. One more thing which for me is very important is that every case is original in this particular area. There are no two same or even similar cases, in fact. Every case demands a total and unique approach. From each case, I come out richer for a part of knowledge which is brought to me by human destinies and experiences.

WOLEP: Who was your mentor? What did he / she teach you that you still apply today in your practice?

Zoran Minic: During my trainee days, my mentor was Mr. Alexander Stojev, a deputy prosecutor in the District Prosecutor's office in Belgrade. But, to clear something at this point, he didn't mentor me the entire time. The trainee program was specific and detailed, very comprehensive. It lasted two years, and almost the entire first year was divided between three months periods, which I needed to spend in the District Prosecutor's administration first. It was mostly clerk job and clerk responsibilities. After that almost one year of clerk business, I got my mentor, Alexander Stojev, and I started to go to court.

He taught me a lot of things - I would single out two of them, which made quite an impact on me. First one is that, sometimes, a small detail can be a very big factor in a case. So that it is of a great importance to be cautious about every aspect of a case, no matter how small it seems. And the other thing I would single out is his famous phrase, "slower is faster", which means that we must never be rushing and try to fasten things up, because then mistakes are made and the job is prolonged to repair the damage from those mistakes. It is better not to hurry and to take reasonable time without tension, and that way the job is done properly, and thoroughly, without coming back and fixing errors or repairing damages. I would like to point out that, obviously, some damages can not be repaired, in this area, as you know. So it's better to be slower, than mess things up.

WOLEP: Cross-border crime remains a hot topic in Europe, as there are many factors that come into play when addressing this subject - from international cooperation to the diversity of crimes being perpetrated. How does the cooperation between Serbia and the EU work in this matter? Are you satisfied with the advances your country has made - and where are you still lagging behind?

Zoran Minic: The Balkan area has always been an "attractive" location for cross-border crime, unfortunately, primary in the form of drug and human trafficking, where the term "Balkan route" is very well-known, which means the drug route that stretched from Iran and Afghanistan through Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria then through countries from the Western Balkans to the European Union. There is some data here. The annual turnover of narcotic and drugs in the countries of the European Union is estimated at 30 billion euros, according to the UN, and to 40 billion euros, according to EUROPOL. So, besides drugs, another significant form of cross-border crime is human and migrant trafficking. In this matter, Serbia aligns itself with European Union policy, and is a signatory to numerous international documents. To be precise, in 2008 the government of Serbia signed an agreement on strategic cooperation with the European Police Office, agreeing to cooperate in the fight against all type of cross-border crimes, especially in the prevention of illegal trafficking in people, narcotics and weapons.

The next year, in 2009, Serbia and the EU signed an agreement on a joint fight against cross-border crime, illegal immigration and more effective border control. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia and the the European Border and Coast Guard Agency - FRONTEX - signed a working arrangement on that cooperation, which establishes modalities for preventing illegal immigration and all forms of cross-border crime. In this area, particularly, bilateral initiatives were launched and agreements were signed with the countries of the region.

That being said, my personal opinion is that things could be better, and can be better, regardless of the speed of integration process of Serbia in the EU, and irrespective of political processes and courses. Crime does not know such obstacles. So the fight against it must be led at international and regional level, through effective cooperation between the police customs and other border services of Serbia and the European Union. So I think these things should be much improved.

WOLEP: Unfortunately, Serbia sometimes makes the news for - in some cases – not applying international arrest warrants issued by other countries. Especially considering the status of Serbia as a EU candidate, why does this happen and are there real grounds for taking such a route? What is your insider's view?

Zoran Minic: That is, unfortunately, true. There are people in Serbia who have been designated as serious criminals by the world's police, which issued warrants for them. However, until Serbia becomes part of the European Union and signs bilateral extradition agreements, they will continue to be free citizens. The reason is not so much political, but is a more technical and legal one. Just issuing an Interpol warrant, no matter how serious it sounds, does not mean that the person who is on that warrant will automatically be arrested in the country where he is, and be deported to the country that is looking for him. The public is often confused by the fact that after thunderous announcements that some famous names were on wanted lists, those persons continue to live in other countries without any problems. I will try to explain this according to the best of my knowledge.

Each country sovereignly decides whether a particular international warrant will be in their national system, which is the only legal basis for someone to be arrested. It is a common situation that there is knowledge that a person is on the wanted list, and he is in a particular country, but there are reasons also, at the same time, why that country does not act on specific requests. There can be legal reasons, for example that the criminal offense of which someone is accused is not considered a criminal offense under the law of that country which demands him and the reasons can also be political, unfortunately, and religious.

What we need is an extradition agreement with the EU and its countries - only then will we have a legal basis for extradition.

But things go both ways - for example, because of the lack of an extradition agreement, even our country cannot count on the fact that foreign citizens will be extradited for what they commit in Serbia and for which they should be prosecuted and convicted here. So, the main reason as I said was a legal one, a technical one.

WOLEP: We've discussed the harmonization of Serbian criminal law to that of the EU bloc. There are many issues at stake, such as tax evasion, preventing and fighting money laundering and so on. Have you been acting as a lawyer in such cases, maybe in which foreign nationals were involved?

Zoran Minic: No, I have not been acting as a lawyer in cases in which foreign nationals were involved - yet. I hope that will be the case in the near future. But by ratifying the Stabilization and Association agreement, Serbia assumed the obligation to harmonize its internal regulations with the legal acquis of the European Community, as a candidate country for EU accession. Serbia is currently in the harmonization process of domestic legislation with European Union standards. Sure enough, the process of harmonization of Serbian criminal law to that of the EU bloc is taking place, but not with the same speed all the time. In general, Serbia is committed to this process, but - in my opinion - the main obstacle in this matter may be more political than legal. The speed of Serbia’s harmonization and our speed of joining the EU is often sabotaged by some of our political decisions. In this particular part, I think the guilty party is politics! (laughs)

WOLEP: You work in Belgrade. How would you describe the legal scene in the Serbian capital?

Zoran Minic: It is quite lively! Belgrade is the biggest city here in Serbia, and there are around 5000 lawyers. Also, the largest police force in the country is Belgrade police force. The court system here is also huge. That has its reasons - the crime rate is not so high, but in Belgrade is the highest, considering the entire Republic of Serbia. Still, criminal lawyers are few, if we take a look at the entire legal scene. The majority of my colleagues are mostly civil rights lawyers and real estate lawyers. We, criminal lawyers, are only a minority - and there are pretty good ones in Belgrade!

WOLEP: Prior to joining the WOLEP network, did you have a chance of working in some projects with lawyers from other countries? Is that an attractive prospect for the future?

Zoran Minic: Of course, that would be great! I think it is a great idea, as is the idea of WOLEP in general. I think your network is a very, very good initiative, an excellent project. Like I said, in the area of criminal law, mutual discussions and cooperation are imperative nowadays, between colleagues in other countries, just like it is between countries. It is the nature of things today.

WOLEP: Our network plans to introduce roundtables to give you a chance to talk to specialists in the same practice area and to compare your experience, share projects and work on complex cases etc. What do you think about this idea, and what criminal law topic would you propose to be discussed in such an event?

Zoran Minic: I congratulate you for your excellent idea. We should do that, of course! As for the topic, I think a very good one would be illegal immigration, because of the global situation. Until recently we had constant migrant crises, and now we have a new war. So, in my opinion, it would be a very interesting thing to cover. The same goes, of course, for drug trafficking here, because as we both mentioned this is the Balkan route. Unfortunately, it is always a hot topic.

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