Europe Region

Background

In Europe, OPDAT supports the strengthening of justice sector institutions and builds their capacity to effectively investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate criminal activity, particularly transnational organized crime, corruption, trafficking in persons, and terrorism. OPDAT’s programs are funded by the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the Bureau of Counterterrorism.

OPDAT stations experienced prosecutors Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs) at Embassies throughout Europe. The RLAs provide direct support to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo, North Macedonia (MKD), Serbia, and Ukraine. They also provide a range of criminal justice assistance programming through regional projects based in Croatia, Central Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia), the Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia), and the Mediterranean (Malta and Cyprus). OPDAT also provides bilateral technical assistance support to Poland via an Intermittent Legal Advisor (ILA).

Selected Issues

Ukraine: With INL funding, OPDAT RLAs were posted at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv from 2005 to Spring 2022, when the program was terminated shortly after the Russian invasion on February 26, 2022. During that time, OPDAT focused on the reform and development of the Ukrainian criminal justice system, particularly corruption and other transnational crime; efforts to enact new justice sector legislation (including a modern criminal procedure code, financial reporting requirements for public officials, and asset confiscation laws); the establishment of dedicated anti-corruption institutions; and the development of the Training Center at the Ukraine Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO). Specifically, OPDAT was instrumental in standing up Ukraine’s specialized anti-corruption institutions including the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). 

As of June 2023 – After requests from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to reestablish the RLA program and after securing funding from INL, OPDAT reinitiated its RLA program. In June 2023, OPDAT deployed an experienced prosecutor to work with Ukrainian partners on a variety of complex justice sector issues including those addressing corruption and strengthening the rule of law. The RLA engages in case-based with prosecutors handling high-profile and/or complex investigations or cases and will collaboratively work to develop updated legislation, policies, and practices for investigating and prosecuting complex cases to include any needed legal reforms on substantive anti-corruption legislation, criminal process and procedure, and/or rule of law issues.   

One important aspect of Ukraine’s effective anti-corruption efforts will include accountability for the significant funds and resources provided by the United States and other international partners to support Ukraine both during the conflict and in a post-conflict reconstruction phase. OPDAT also has partnered with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Center for Audit Excellence to work with the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine to improve the Chamber’s internal capabilities. Given the substantial monetary assistance from the U.S. government and other international partners, the Accounting Chamber’s ability to effectively audit and account for funding streams is critical.

Terrorism and Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Terrorism, and the return of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs) pose significant security threats across the Balkans. To address this, OPDAT provides support across the region, and in particular to Albania, BiH, Kosovo, Montenegro, MKD, and Serbia. This support is focused on capacity building and mentorship for investigators and prosecutors working on terrorism or FTF cases, on legal analysis and legislative drafting to strengthen terrorism laws and sentencing reform. OPDAT, working closely with the Department’s National Security Division, has assisted prosecutors in the region to obtain more than 284 terrorism-related guilty dispositions since 2015.

Battlefield Evidence: OPDAT facilitates information sharing of evidence seized from the battlefield, or other locations, with European partners and allies to support criminal cases against terrorists and FTFs in civilian courts.  Foreign law enforcement counterparts often seek access to this information and are stymied in their efforts by the lack of an efficient processes for disseminating battlefield evidence and evaluating its contents for declassification and use in civilian criminal proceedings. To meet these challenges, OPDAT worked with the U.S. European Command in Germany and other partners to develop a whole-of-government approach to enabling the use of military intelligence in civilian judicial proceedings of terrorists and FTFs. Consequently, the use of battlefield evidence has become more routine in Balkan prosecutions and sentencings.

Corruption: Effectively combating corruption is a major criterion for the EU accession process for European countries and a central policy focus for the U.S. Government. OPDAT develops the anti-corruption investigative and prosecutorial capacity of partners throughout Europe and provides legislative drafting assistance to strengthen relevant legal frameworks and ensure compliance with international requirements and conventions.

For example, in Albania, OPDAT was instrumental in setting up a constitutionally protected, independent, and vetted Special Prosecution against Organized Crime and Corruption (SPAK) unit, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting high-level corruption, including securing the conviction of the former prosecutor general for concealment of funds as a public official. An RLA is embedded in SPAK to assist with case-based mentoring. OPDAT also has an experienced U.S. prosecutor supporting a rigorous system of vetting of all judges and prosecutors in Albania, which has resulted in the dismissal of 256 judges and prosecutors for corruption, unexplained wealth, or ties to organized crime, as well as the resignation of 152 others to avoid undergoing vetting-a total of 60% of all the judges and prosecutors.

On April 5, 2023, in BiH, OPDAT mentored prosecutors secured convictions against the Federation Prime Minister, the suspended director of the Civil Protection Administration, and the owner of the Silver Raspberry Company, for crimes related to abuse of office and forgery of official documents for illegally procuring 100 ventilators costing taxpayers over $6,000,000. The court sentenced the defendants to four to six years and ordered the forfeiture of illegally derived proceeds. OPDAT BiH also leads the country’s anti-corruption interagency working group tasked with addressing BiH’s corruption issues

In Serbia, OPDAT helped establish specialized police and prosecutor anti-corruption units and works to enhance the capacity of these units to combat official corruption, procurement fraud, embezzlement, and bribery. Throughout the Balkans, Baltics, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Mediterranean, OPDAT provides direct case-based mentoring to local prosecutors on high-profile corruption cases.

In 2022, with support from OPDAT’s Central Europe Anti-Corruption Program, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), sanctioned three Bulgarian individuals for their extensive roles in corruption in Bulgaria, as well as their networks encompassing 64 entities, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.  

OPDAT encouraged other European countries to adopt Magnitsky like legislation and on June 7, 2023, the Kosovo’s Parliament approved its Law on Targeted Sanctions Against Foreign Human Rights Violators. OPDAT is increasing its efforts to encourage other countries to use Magnitsky like legislation to target human right abusers and corrupt actors. 

Organized Crime: Organized criminal groups engage in trafficking drugs, persons, and weapons, as well as extortion and corruption. OPDAT strengthens special prosecution units in the region and provides case-based mentoring as well as capacity building for investigators and prosecutors, on developing proactive investigations aimed at identifying and seizing illegal assets in complex prosecutions.

Human Trafficking: Trafficking in persons in Europe is closely linked to organized crime. OPDAT addresses human trafficking through building the capacity of law enforcement to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate human trafficking cases as well as NGOs to provide material and psychosocial support to trafficking victims. OPDAT has provided technical skills workshops to police, prosecutors, judges, and NGO personnel from across the Balkans on identifying trafficking victims, victim interviewing, and victim support through the investigative, judicial, and reintegration processes. These programs include mentorship for judges on the effects of trauma on adult and child victims and teaching best practices for the adjudication of trafficking cases. In BiH, Serbia, Kosovo, and MKD, OPDAT supports the creation and management of law enforcement task forces for combatting human trafficking and has provided ongoing mentorship to their leadership.

Victim-Witness Programs: OPDAT’s program in Kosovo has served as a regional model with its victim advocate program (which now has an advocate in each district prosecutor’s office) and the first victim compensation system in the region. In Albania, OPDAT worked with the Prosecutor General’s Office to stand up a victim-witness advocates program. This program led to the hiring of 30 victim advocates attached to regional prosecution offices. OPDAT is providing training and mentorship to these new advocates as they work in partnership with police and prosecutors to conduct victim-centered investigations, understand the effects of trauma on victim presentation and testimony, help victims make informed decisions about their cases, and connect victims to support resources.

Domestic Violence (DV): OPDAT works in partnership with law enforcement and civil society institutions to strengthen the capabilities of the justice system to combat DV by establishing dialogue and cooperation between stakeholders and providing targeted capacity building workshops to justice sector practitioners. OPDAT helps police and prosecutors employ a survivor-centered approach to DV cases through training on victim identification, the modalities of intimate partner violence, and the impact of trauma on victim testimony and law enforcement interaction. OPDAT also works with judges across the region to evaluate psychological and economic harm, in addition to physical violence, and to adapt court proceedings to the needs of child victims. In addition to skills development, OPDAT conducts legal analysis and legislative drafting on laws related to DV.

Curriculum and Academy Development: OPDAT programs in the Balkans focus on achieving sustainable reforms that can be implemented by local institutions. It works with in-country training institutions and experts to develop curricula and instructional capacity to teach investigative, prosecutorial, judicial, and management skills. Over the past two years, these initiatives have been highly successful in BiH, Latvia, MKD, and Serbia. Moreover, OPDAT designed, developed, and produced synchronous distance learning e-courses for MKD’s Academy for Judges and Prosecutors so that practitioners can take courses on their own schedule.  Additionally, the Western Balkans Regional Platform delivers regional capacity building programs aimed at educating and empowering local practitioners to present to their peers both in their home countries and regionally on such topics as money laundering, anti-corruption and trial presentation skills. OPDAT-designed curriculum, methodologies, and instructor development, tailored to the various countries, have been adopted by both public and training institutions, significantly increasing peer to peer training.

Digital Evidence and Online Investigations:  OPDAT works in partnership with the Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and the regional International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Advisors in Bucharest, the Hague, and Zagreb to conduct skills development programs for prosecutors and investigators to obtain, analyze, and persuasively present digital evidence in criminal proceedings. OPDAT also works with prosecutors and investigators to employ new investigative techniques using open-source information, including the use of social media in criminal cases.

COVID-19 Assistance: During the COVID-19 pandemic, OPDAT assisted criminal justice systems in the Balkans in developing procedures for the prioritization of cases, implementing social distancing procedures in prosecution offices and courts, establishing new programs to provide protection for DV victims during the pandemic, and conducting virtual hearings. OPDAT also provides case-based mentorship to law enforcement and prosecutors conducting investigations of procurement fraud crimes related to corruption in purchases of personal protective equipment and medical devices.