Public prosecutors of the Special Anticorruption Departments of Higher Prosecutor`s Offices in Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad and Kraljevo, police officers and investigators of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia (Department for Suppression of Corruption, Department for Suppression of High-Tech Crime, National Criminal Forensic Center), had the opportunity during a multi-day study visit to the judicial institutions and police of North Rhine-Westphalia, to acquaint themselves with the technical and software solutions and methodology used in daily work, the ever-present challenges in the field of misuse of digital technologies and assets for money laundering and various forms of high-tech crime, and to share experiences and best practices with their German colleagues.
The Serbian delegation was presented with the structure of the Federal Police of Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia, the strategy of combating organized crime and corruption (including proactive financial investigations and asset forfeiture), with an emphasis on software development and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in combating different forms of crimes in the field of information and communication technologies. The Serbian prosecutors and investigators had the opportunity to visit the HQ and Police Academy in Düsseldorf, and to get acquainted with in-service training programs of criminal police, the use of innovative forensic equipment and software solutions, as well as with the high-profile investigations performed by the Cybercrime Central and Contact Point for Northern Rhine-Westphalia, (ZAC) at the Public Prosecutor`s Office in Cologne.
Study tour was organized as part of the project “Support for Strengthening Rule of Law in Serbia”, jointly financed by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – EU FOR FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION AND FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS – and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
