Montenegro and Serbia to sign extradition agreement

Montenegro continues to enhance its regional cooperation by announcing the signing with Serbia of an agreement on the extradition of own nationals in severe crimes cases on November 2, after signing a similar agreement with Croatia on October 1.

The agreement would create a legal basis for the extradition of own nationals between the two countries for criminal wrongdoing such as organized crime, crimes against humanity, corruption and money laundering. As Justice Minister Radovic told the press, the extradition agreement would pertain to crime cases carrying four years’ imprisonment or longer prison sentences in both jurisdictions. He added that the agreement would also foresee the possibility of extraditing own nationals for the purpose of execution of court judgments imposing sentences of at least two years.

Furthermore, Minister Radovic said that the agreement would identify the term “corruption” as including: abuse of office, illegal influence, bribery and the unlawful act of embezzlement. According to him, the agreement would also prescribe the cases in which extradition may be denied.

As Minister Radovic said earlier, this agreement would provide greater possibilities for cooperation than in the case of the Agreement with Croatia, including a wider spectrum of criminal wrongdoings for which extradition may be granted.

The representatives of the two Ministries were guided by the fact that the frequency of travel between Serbia and Montenegro is the highest in the region, which induces the risk of cross-border crime, detectable in extradition requests for 75 Serbian citizens by Montenegro and 15 Montenegrin citizens by Serbia, concluded Minister Radovic.