Serbia ‘abused’ money laundering laws to target critics, Reuters reports

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Part of a list of NGOs whose financial data was sought from banks. Screenshot: Youtube.com/Newsmax Adria

Serbia is among several countries that have abused legislation passed to comply with Financial Action Task Force, FATF, Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing standards to investigate critical voices and NGO, Reuters reported Thursday.

According to Reuters, in Uganda, Serbia, India, Tanzania and Nigeria, the legislation has been used by authorities to investigate journalists, NGO workers and lawyers.

Through constant assessments of country actions, the FATF plays a little-known but essential role in shaping financial crime legislation and enforcing government security priorities, the FATF said. Press Agency. Around the world, it has strengthened laws to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

But by pressuring countries with weak democratic frameworks to pass and strengthen such laws, the FATF unwittingly handed over a new legal instrument to authoritarian governments, according to a dozen researchers from think tanks and groups. defense of human rights, he added.

Reuters quoted Tom Keatinge, director of the Center for Financial Crime at the Royal United Services Institute in London, as saying that FATF standards are increasingly not only misunderstood, but are being deliberately abused.

Regarding Serbia, Reuters recalled a request that the Administration of Finance Ministries for the Prevention of Money Laundering made to banks in July 2020.

It involved providing customer data on some 50 NGOs and media known to criticize what they see as the increasingly autocratic regime of President Aleksandar Vucic. The list included the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN and a number of BIRN staff.

Reuters further reported that after the letter was leaked, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali told a local TV station that the intelligence unit was doing its job and data requests should not be a problem for the targets if nothing is hidden.

No individual has been charged so far as a result of the investigations, Reuters reported.

Reuters reported that Maja Stojanovic, director of the non-profit Civic Initiatives of Serbia named in the letter, told the news agency that she believed the Serbian government was using the data for smear campaigns. in order to undermine the work of NGOs.

When Stojanovic and other targeted NGOs consulted with banks about the requests, the banks said they could not disclose the information they shared with authorities, the news agency reported.

Reuters said it asked three of the banks, Banca Intesa Beograd, OTP banka Srbija and Erste Group Bank, for comment, all of which refused to do so.

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