Conference "Confiscation of property in criminal and misdemeanor proceedings"

On October 30, 2025, the representative of the Republic of Serbia before the European Court of Human Rights, Zorana Jadrijević Mladar, participated in Conference "Confiscation of property in criminal and misdemeanor proceedings" whicha was helda in Belgrade.

The immediate reason for holding the Conference are the recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Serbia related to confiscation of property (Yaylal,ÇOBANTUR TURİZM TİCARET VE NAKLİYAT LTD. ŞTİ,AKSÜNGÜR and others andPrench) and related to the need for a clearer interpretation and application of the regulations related to confiscation of property in criminal and misdemeanor proceedings.

They opened the conferenceCarolina Hidea,v.f. head of the OSCE Mission in Serbia, János Babity, head of the Office of the Council of Europe in Belgrade and Milena Rašić, judge of the Supreme Court.

The participants of the Conference, about sixty representatives of the Court, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, courts of general and special jurisdiction, public prosecutor's offices, the Ministry of Justice, customs authorities and the State Attorney's Office, had the opportunity to discuss domestic case law related to confiscation of property. The challenges faced by the competent state authorities, first of all, when imposing protective measures of confiscation of objects in criminal and misdemeanor proceedings and the need to fully comply with the standards of the Court were discussed.

A special contribution to the discussion regarding Bojana Nikolin, head of the Department for the Execution of Court Judgments in the Council of Europe, presented the relevant practice of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the process of supervising the execution of Court judgments in similar cases against other member states, highlighting the different approaches and examples of best practice.

At the end of the Conference, the representative of the Republic of Serbia before the European Court of Human Rights and the coordinator for the execution of the Court's judgments referred to the procedure for the execution of the Court's judgments and presented the next steps in the execution of the above-mentioned judgments.

The event was jointly organized by the project "Improving the protection of human rights in Serbia", which is part of the joint program of the European Union and the Council of Europe "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey", andOSCE mission in Serbia.