BOSNIA - STATE PRSECUTOR'S OFFICE BEGINS TO TACKLE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SARAJEVO 002682 SIPDIS SIPDIS EUR (DICARLO),EUR/SCE (HOH, FOOKS, STINCHCOMB),EUR/ACE (TEFFT, DUNN),INL FOR KIMMEL; NSC FOR BRAUN; DOJ PASS TO OPDAT CARL ALEXANDRE; OSD FOR BEIN E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/17/2017 TAGS: PGOV EAID ECON PREL KCRM BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA - STATE PRSECUTOR'S OFFICE BEGINS TO TACKLE MORE COMPLEX ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION CASES REF: A. SARAJEVO 2062 ¶B. 06 SARAJEVO 2725 Classified By: DCM Judith Cefkin for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Although it was established four years ago, the Special Department for Organized Crimes (SDOC) at the State Prosecutor,s Office is only now starting to prosecute the most complex corruption, organized and financial crimes in Bosnia. With our strong support, Drew Engel, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Head of the Department, has developed and implemented case selection criteria to ensure that the office, which has been inundated with less complex crimes, devotes its resources to complex cases. He has also put in place other policies that make the department more effective and efficient. However, the department continues to face serious challenges that if left unchecked, would undermine its progress. Chief Prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic continues to exercise poor leadership; the department lacks needed human, technical, and financial resources; and the State Court,s tendency to overturn appeals in favor of defendants and its poor management of courtrooms are hampering the department,s efforts to carry out its mission. To maintain and build on the progress being made, national prosecutors will need to gain confidence to take on politically sensitive and more complex cases and to make better use of the tools available to them before the State Court. The international community will also need to continue supporting SDOC,s activities. END SUMMARY SDOC Making Inroads -------------- ¶2. (C) Drew Engel, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Head of the Special Department for Organized Crimes (SDOC),recently told the Embassy that, since its establishment in 2003, his department has &finally turned a corner.8 The department,s four international and six national prosecutors, who had been inundated with hundreds of smaller, less complex cases, are now processing more complex and high-profile organized crime, corruption, and financial crime cases in line with the department,s mandate. This is a direct result of Engel,s efforts to establish case selection �00A;criteria (something that we had long lobbied for) with a threshold of 100,000 km (75,187 USD). Once this policy was officially adopted, Engel transferred 150 smaller cases to the Department for General Crimes and to the entities. Now 64 percent of the cases meet the threshold, compared to a little over 20 percent earlier this year, and the amount of fines and restitution assessed have increased significantly. To ensure that prosecutors will continue to tackle the toughest cases, Engel has asked prosecutors to identify and focus on their top five to ten cases and will personally review each new investigation opened and indictment filed. He also plans to assess the department,s caseload monthly to ensure that the office stays on target. ¶3. (U) Engel, who is widely admired for his managerial skills within the State Prosecutor,s Office and the Registry (the organization that administers the international presence at the State Court and Prosecutor,s Office),has spearheaded other initiatives aimed at improving SDOC, s efficiency and effectiveness. These include the following: -- Drafting a new Book of Rules that establishes procedures for every day operations and the duties and responsibilities of personnel; -- Establishing a new policy on plea agreements to prevent prosecutors from offering deals with light sentences and fines in an effort to boost their &wins;8 -- Working with the High Justice and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC),which is responsible for appointing, evaluating, and promoting judges and prosecutors, to create new evaluations for prosecutors so that they could get credit for the complexity, and not the number of cases they prosecute; and -- Drafting a strategy paper laying out the department,s goals, objectives, and performance indicators for 2007 to ¶2009. ¶4. (C) In terms of cases, the fruits of Engel,s and his staff,s labor are now paying off. Thus far this year, for example, they received a verdict in a tax evasion case involving 365,000 KM (274,436 USD) in unpaid taxes in which the accused was fined and ordered to pay the full amount owed, and is close to bringing to trial a major case involving police corruption in Mostar. Some other noteworthy cases (out of a current caseload of 600) include the Srpske Sume corruption case involving Party for Democratic Progress (PDP) President Mladen Ivanic (Note: Ivanic allowed the public company to illegally cut forest and directed company officials to provide PDP with financial contributions while he was Republika Srpska's Prime Minister. End Note); the retrial of HDZ President Dragan Covic for abuse of office (Ref A); an international human smuggling case involving Chinese nationals; and a counterfeiting case. Last year, in addition to Covic, the department prosecuted Momcilo Mandic, a former Republika Srspska Minister of Justice and Director of Privredna Banka Srpsko Sarajevo, for abuse of office (Ref B). SDOC also prevailed in its corruption case against Ante Jelavic, a former Chairman of the Tri-Presidency, though regrettably, Jelavic escaped to Croatia after the appeals panel revoked his ten-year sentence and ordered a re-trial. But Faces Daunting Challenges -------------- ¶5. (C) Despite these successes, SDOC faces a number of challenges that requires robust monitoring, and when necessary, lobbying by the international community on the department,s behalf. Foremost among these include the continued poor leadership exercised by Chief Prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic, who, by several accounts, repeatedly obstructs the department,s work. Until recently, Jurcevic resisted establishing and adopting case selection criteria, preferring instead that the department process hundreds of less complex cases. He reportedly returned 430,000 KM (323,308 USD) allotted to the Prosecutor,s Office last year to the state-level government, rather than use the funds to fill key positions that are currently vacant and to secure technical and other resources for the resource-strapped department. At the same time, Jurcevic has repeatedly tried to shift prosecutors and professional staff to the Department for General Crimes. These actions, along with continued attempts to undermine Engel,s authority, have made it more difficult for Engel to maintain high morale among his staff. ¶6. (C) SDOC is further handicapped by the lack of proper technical equipment and funds for undercover operations. In a separate conversation with us, Bozo Mihailovich, considered by Engel to be the department,s top local prosecutor, lamented having to rely on ill-prepared and wary policemen in undercover operations. Mihailovich spoke at length about the lack of monitoring devices and sophisticated equipment to track calls made with telephone cards, text messages, and emails. He also complained about not having procedures in place to obtain funds for use in undercover operations, saying that he had just finished a major counterfeiting case using funds from EUROPOL. The State Court, The Prosecutors, Timidity Also Obstacles -------------- -------------- ¶7. (C) The tendency of the State Court Appeals panel to reverse first instance verdicts further frustrates the efforts of Engel and his staff. Based on data Engel has provided to the Embassy, the appeals panel has revoked or modified verdicts and reduced sentences handed down in favor of defendants more than it has confirmed first instance verdicts -- OHR tells us that this reversal rate is as much as 60 percent. Along with the High Justice and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC),the Office of the High Representative (OHR), and others in the international community, we continue to bring this troubling trend to State Court President Medzida Kreso,s attention. However, Kreso maintains that the State Prosecutor,s Office is to blame for bringing weak cases to the Court, even though a judge has to review indictments before they are filed. Another issue concerns prolonged trials due to the Court administration,s failure to use courtrooms efficiently. We hear anecdotally that the courtrooms are often empty in the afternoons instead of being used for trials. ¶8. (C) Continued international presence in SDOC and the international community,s support for its operations are key to the department,s continued progress. According to Engel, SDOC,s national prosecutors need to take on more politically-sensitive and complex cases, which to date have been assigned to the international prosecutors. To illustrate his point, Engel said on one occasion, a prosecutor agreed to take on a tough case only on the condition that Engel,s name would be on the case files. He believes that, were the internationals to leave SDOC now, national prosecutors would avoid the complex and politically sensitive cases. Drawing on his twenty years of experience as a prosecutor, Engel also observed that prosecutors need to be more aggressive in the courts; they must stop seeking plea agreements, start using asset forfeiture laws, and start advocating for custody and tougher sentences. U.S. Efforts -------------- ¶9. (C) We remain SDOC,s staunchest supporters and have been spearheading efforts to harmonize the stay of Engel and other international secondees working on corruption, organized, and financial crimes with those working on war crimes at the State Prosecutor,s Office and the Court. After much lobbying, we obtained key justice officials, support to extend the secondees, stay from end 2007 to 2009. We are funding four of the nine positions within the department and are urging other donors to make up the 300,000 plus euro shortfall. The project has the full support of HighRep Lajcak, who has shown interest in the justice sector. SDOC would also support OHR,s proposed Anti-Corruption unit, which would monitor suspicious and illegal financial activities of key politicians and officials. In addition, ICITAP is providing joint training for police and prosecutors, while OPDAT is providing trial advocacy workshops for new SDOC prosecutors. We hope to begin to address the problem with the appeals panel with the arrival of a U.S. secondee, who will join the panel in January, and with the assigning of another secondee currently on the war crimes panel to help the panel on an as needed basis. Another secondee is tackling the question of courtroom scheduling. Comment -------------- ¶10. (C) Our secondees and the other internationals are making valuable contributions to the State Prosecutor Office,s efforts to combat corruption, organized and financial crime. They are providing national prosecutors with political cover, information about best practices, and encouragement to take on the tough cases. This is despite Chief Prosecutor Jurcevic,s obstruction of the department, the lack of resources, and the lack of political support by Bosnian political leaders who generally have little interest in seeing SDOC succeed. As part of our efforts to build state-level institutions, we will continue to provide political support to SDOC, to prod Chief Prosecutor Jurcevic to exhibit better leadership, and to urge OHR and the international community to make the strengthening of SDOC a priority. ENGLISH