Tracing of assets - national proceedings

Serbia

Criminal Procedure Code

Part One
GENERAL PART

Chapter VII
EVIDENCE

2. Evidentiary Actions

ΕΎ) Checking Accounts and Suspicious Transactions

Acquiring Data
Article 144

If the conditions referred to in Article 143 paragraph 1 of this Code are fulfilled, the public prosecutor may order a bank or other financial organisation to provide him within a certain time limit data :

1) about accounts a suspect has or controls and the funds in those accounts ;
2) from data records.

The bank or other financial organisation is required to preserve as a secret the fact that it acted in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article.

If he does not initiate criminal proceedings within six months of the date of examining the collected data referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, or if he declares that he will not request the conduct of proceedings against the suspect, or if he deems the collected data not necessary for conducting proceedings, the public prosecutor will issue a ruling on the destruction of the collected materials.

The public prosecutor will inform the person against whom the evidentiary action was performed about the ruling referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article. The materials are destroyed under the supervision of the public prosecutor, who makes a record thereof.

Monitoring of Suspicious Transactions
Article 145

If the conditions referred to in Article 143 paragraph 1 of this Code are fulfilled, the public prosecutor may request a court to order the monitoring of suspicious transactions.

The monitoring referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article is ordered by the judge for preliminary proceedings by a reasoned order. The order contains data on the suspect, designation of the account, the obligation of the bank or financial organisation to submit periodical reports to the public prosecutor, and the duration of the supervision. The monitoring may last no more than three months, and may for important reasons be extended by another three months at most. The monitoring is discontinued as soon as the reasons for its application cease to exist.

Unless specified otherwise in the order, the bank or other financial organisation is required to notify the public prosecutor before every transaction that the transaction will be performed and to specify the time limit in which it will be performed.

If due to the nature of the transaction it is not possible to act in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article, the bank or other financial organisation will notify the public prosecutor immediately after the performance of the transaction and specify the reasons for the delay.

The bank or financial organisation is required to maintain as a secret the fact that it has acted in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article.

If the public prosecutor does not initiate criminal proceedings within six months of the date of examining the data obtained by the supervision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article or if he declares that he will not request the conduct of proceedings against the suspect, or if he deems the data collected not necessary for conducting proceedings, the judge for preliminary proceedings will act in accordance with Article 144 paragraphs 3 and 4 of this Code.

Rome Statute

Article 93 Other forms of cooperation

1. States Parties shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Part and under procedures of national law, comply with requests by the Court to provide the following assistance in relation to investigations or prosecutions:

(k) The identification, tracing and freezing or seizure of proceeds, property and assets and instrumentalities of crimes for the purpose of eventual forfeiture, without prejudice to the rights of bona fide third parties; and