Mission MAG - European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and ...

Undercover
In movies, you often see police officers
who infiltrate a criminal group in
order to collect information. But this
method cannot be applied in any case…
A court proceeding has currently been
going on at the BiH Court against M.B.,
A. C. and B.I. They are suspected of organising
terrorist attacks in BiH and possibly
in other European countries. Special
investigative methods have been used to
unveil their intentions, such as secret tailing,
audio-, video -, or technical surveillance,
simulating transactions, offering
bribery, breaking into computer systems
and electronic comparison of data, to
name only a few. The use of an informer
or an undercover investigator falls under
the same category.
"The principle is the following: a police
officer infiltrates a criminal environment,
following the guidelines of a judge or a
prosecutor, depending on the legal system,
and collects the information and the
evidence needed for the criminal proceeding,"
explains Haris Halilovic, Senior Assistant
at the Faculty of Criminal Science
in Sarajevo.
The use of an undercover investigator,
as well as other special investigative
methods, is often very efficient, but it also
jeopardises privacy. This is why such
methods are strictly defined by the current
legislation on criminal matters (i.e.
Criminal Procedural Codes).
'Antidroga.ba' will survive
the anti-drugs campaign
It is not easy to talk about drugs. That's why EUPM created www.antidroga.ba,
providing you with all the information you need in just one click.
As the Choose, Life not Drugs Campaign comes to an end, we asked the main
actors of the fight against drugs in BiH what they think about the website. And it
seems like Antidroga.ba will survive long after the campaign!
"I think that creating the website www.antidroga.ba was one of the most important
activities within the project that EUPM started in cooperation with agencies for
implementation of the law in BiH. The webpage is useful for NGOs because we can
use it to present our activities and, at the same time, it is also provides people with
information about this subject."
Samir Ibiševic, President of PROI, Sarajevo
"It is of great use for us all who work on drug use prevention and treatment,
because we can represent our work and have information about each other's work.
It is very important for the users of our services as well, because we can provide them
with easy access to a wealth of information."
Sanja Stanic, Coordinator of Together
and President of Viktorija, Banja Luka
"I believe that this web portal is of great importance for coordinated and transparent
work of NGOs that work on prevention of drug addiction. It promotes the
exchange of information between all those involved in this issue."
Valentina Gagic, President of Association Sara, Srebrenica
By Sanela Pekic
Restricted use only
"One of the conditions is the existence
of reasonable suspicion that a certain
person has committed or is still committing
a criminal offence," says Ramiz Hasic,
Chief of the Special Purposes Department
of the Criminal Investigation Department
within the Ministry of Interior,
Herzegovina-Neretva Canton. "The other
condition is that the necessary evidence
could not have been obtained in any other
way or that it may have been unreasonably
difficult to obtain."
According to the law, special investigative
measures can be applied to uncover
criminal offences against BiH's integrity,
such as acts of terrorism, smuggling,
human or drug trafficking, and money
laundering, as well as all other offences
for which it is possible to render a verdict
of up to at least three years of imprisonment.
"We are not satisfied with the fact that
special investigative methods can only be
used in these cases," says Salih Memic,
Chief Prosecutor of the County
Prosecution in Doboj. "I think they could
be applied in other cases too, since there
are many criminal offences requiring
smaller sanctions, but for which special
investigative methods are the only way to
obtain evidence."
As a matter of fact, the law does not
allow using any of the special investigative
methods to investigate offences such
as drug dealing, unless an organised criminal
group is involved.
8
European Union Police Mission
www.eupm.org