Kosovo
2008 Training
The Section of Litigation’s 2008 “Kosovo Anti-Trafficking Task Force” was co-chaired by Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk and Nixon Peabody Partner Anjali Chaturvedi. The June 5 & 6, 2008, training in Pristina, Kosovo, was co-sponsored by the ABA Section of Litigation, ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA-ROLI), and the U.S. Department of Justice Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training (USDOJ-OPDAT).
The training included some 50 Kosovar and international (U.N. and European Union) prosecutors, investigators, victim advocates, district judges, academics, students, Kosovo Supreme Court Justices, and high-ranking U.N Mission in Kosovo legal advisors. By all available accounts the training must be considered a great success; it was enthusiastically attended by Kosovo’s major rule-of-law players, it directly addressed a clear need for training by litigators with practical experience in the field, it prompted lively discussion among the participants, and it resulted in broad coverage by every major television, press, and radio outlet, including Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and Radio Liberty.
To view the June 5-6, 2008 Agenda, click here.
The results from the June 2008 confiscation/forfeiture training were put together by the Section of Litigation, in cooperation with ABA-ROLI and USDOJ-OPDAT. At the time of the training the Kosovar and international prosecutors had never sought to forfeit any instrumentalities or proceeds in any cases, human trafficking or other. While laws mandating forfeiture had been on the books since 2004, the prosecutors were unfamiliar with their practical application.
On June 26th, 2008, and in explicit response to the training, United Nations Mission in Kosovo's Department of Justice Director Bob Dean issued the " Circular." This was the first such Circular drafted and issued in response to to a training program, and it mandated specific action on the part of the judges and prosecutors. Since then, the following forfeiture actions have been reported by the local authorities:
"The Public District Prosecutors Office in Gjilan has filed 5 requests in 5 criminal offense cases, from the CCK articles 138,139 and 220, where the following were confiscated: a vehicle WW Jetta in a value of 30,000 Euros, 2 transport vehicles, one passenger vehicle Nisan and one other vehicle as well as 5,200 Euros and 1000 chfr.
Public District Prosecutor's Office in Mitrovica in a criminal offense of organized crime has confiscated 108,000 Euro and two vehicles for criminal offense of narcotics.
[C]hief prosecutors of all other offices say that in cases when they deal with the smuggling immigrant CCK article 138, human trafficking CCK article 139 and selling or distribution of narcotics CCK article 229, prosecutors propose a temporary and final confiscation."
The results from the other prosecutors' offices are still being collected.