The study visit is part of the activities in which the AIRE Centre has supported the initiative and efforts of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina to improve and strengthen the capacity of the Analytical Department within the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will be focused on pre-investigation and investigative actions in cases of organised crime and corruption.

The delegation of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by a prosecutor, a legal officer and an expert advisor-investigator, accompanied by Jill Thomas, AIRE Centre’s Criminal Asset Recovery Advisor, and Martina Raguž, AIRE Centre’s Project Manager.

The representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina held meetings with experts from several U.K. authorities for fight against the most complex forms of crime, starting with visits to the International Anti-Corruption Unit and the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre, which operate within the National Crime Agency.

These institutions are specialised in cross-border investigations in cases of money laundering and systemic corruption, often cooperating with prosecutors’ offices and police around the world. On the first day of the visit, a meeting was held with representatives of the U.K. National Domestic Corruption Unit, a newly formed unit within the City of London Police.

“The fight against corruption and organised crime must be focused on its main goal, which is profit and unlawfully acquired property gain. The visit to the institutions that have decades of experience in monitoring money flows and confiscating assets have helped us analyse how to further strengthen our own approach,” the expert advisor-investigator of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina pointed out.

In Birmingham, a meeting was held with representatives of the West Midlands and Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit and the Assets Recovery Department within the Crown Prosecution Service, with a focus on operational cooperation between the police and the prosecution, the use of special investigative actions, as well as strategies for the efficient conduct of complex investigations in cases of organised crime, specifically financial investigations, assets recovery and money laundering.

“The study visit allowed the representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina to exchange experiences with representatives of U.K. anti-corruption and anti-organised crime agencies, get acquainted with the most modern operational practices and improve their knowledge of strategies for efficient prosecution of cases of the most complex forms of criminal offences. We are particularly pleased that through this initiative direct contact between the institutions has been established, which has laid the foundations for stronger inter-institutional cooperation in the future,” Martina Raguž, AIRE Centre Project Manager said.

The study visit was paid as part of a wider program of the U.K. Government and the U.K. Embassy in Sarajevo aimed at strengthening the capacities of the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina for efficient prosecution of organised crime and corruption. In the context of increasingly complex challenges faced by the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuous cooperation with relevant U.K. institutions contributes to building a more resilient and independent institutional response.