Transcript EL ESPACIO JUDICIAL EUROPEO - EIPA

INTERNATIONAL JUDICIAL
MUTUAL LEGAL
ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL
MATTERS.
NATIONAL
SOVEREIGNITY
Exclusive and excluding power:
Definition of crimes (Penal Law)
Organize the police estructures: Prevention and investigation
Organize the judicial estructures:Investigation, prosecution and trial
Organize the estructure: Serving sentences
INTERNATIONAL
JUDICIAL MUTUAL LEGAL
ASSISTANCE: A
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
POLITICAL AUTHORITIES
DIFICULTIES INHERENT TO
MUTUAL LEGAL
ASSISTANCE
A.- Different lenguages.
B.- Diverse judicial systems.
- Competent executing authority.
- Competent authority according to the territory.
C.- The existence of different rules for penal procedure.
D.- The existence of different Penal Law.
E.- Stremely slow mecanisms in order to transmit the request for
Mutual Legal Assistance.
F.- The lack of measures to follow up and control of the execution
of MLA requests.
DIFFICULTIES INHERENT TO
MUTUAL LEGAL
ASSISTANCE
.Double incrimination.
. Protection for own nationals.
.Cumbersome proceedings in the requested
countries in order to examine that procedural
garanties will be accomplished. Absence of mutual
reliance.
. A certain field for discretionality: The defense of
national interest and of the public order.
EUROPEAN SPACE OF
FREEDOM, SECURITY AND
LIBERTY
SOLUTIONS
-The direct contact between judicial concerned authorities.
SOLUTIONS
-The direct contact between concerned judicial authorities.
-The aproximation of Penal Laws and Penal Procedural Laws..
SOLUCIONES: A APROXIMACION DE LAS LEGISLACIONES
-.Decisión Marco, adoptada por el Consejo el 27-1-2003, relativa a la protección del medio
ambiente a través del Derecho Penal.
-.Decisión Marco, adoptada por el Consejo el 28-11-2002, relativa a reforzar el marco penal
para la represión de la ayuda a la entrada, circulación y estancia irregular.
-.Directiva 2002/90/CE del Consejo, de 28-11-2002, destinada a definir la ayuda a la
entrada, circulación y estancia irregular.
-.Decisión Marco, adoptada por el Consejo el 19-7-2002, relativa a la trata de seres
humanos.
-. Decisión Marco sobre el delito de terrorismo adoptada por el Consejo el 13 de Junio del
2002.
-. Decisión Marco, adoptada por el Consejo el 26 de Junio del 2001, sobre el delito de
blanqueo de dinero, identificación, seguimiento, inmovilización, embargo, y confiscación de
los instrumentos y efectos procedentes de delito.
-. Decisión Marco , adoptada el 6-12-2001, en relación con la falsificación del Euro.
-. Decisión Marco, adoptada el 28 de Mayo del 2001, en relación con los delitos derivados de
la utilización de instrumentos de pago distintos del dinero.
-. Decisión Marco, adoptada por el Consejo el 15-3-2001, relativa al estatuto de la victima en
el proceso penal.
SOLUTIONS
-The direct contact betwen concerned judicial authorities.
-Apromximation of Penal Laws and Penal Procedural Laws.
-Mutual recognition of judicial decisions.
-Common european mechanisms for evaluation.
-To create proceedings allowing the competent authorities of
one concerned country to act inside the territory of another
one: joint investigating teams; hot pursuits; under cover
agents. Joint investigating teams.
-To create structures in order to facilitate MLA.
NEW STRUCTURES IN ORDER TO
FACILITATE MUTUAL LEGAL
ASSISTANCE
A.- Liaison magistrates.
B.- The European Judicial Network.
C.- EUROJUST
LIAISON MAGISTRATES
Common Action 22 April 1996.
Low legal effect.
Creates a frame work allowing the exchange of liaison magistrates,
based in bilateral or multilateral agreements:
Between Member states of the EU?
No procedural rules on international MLA are concerned
LIAISON MAGISTRATES
Objectives:
-Improve eficiency of MLA
--Facilitate the knowledge of different judicial systems
-- Facilitate the fight against transnational organized crime
Profile: Expert in MLA.
LIAISON MAGISTRATES
Functions:
a) Any activity aiming to speed up and push all kind of judicial
cooperation, through direct contact with the competent authorities.
b). Scope: Any kind of judicial cooperation, not only in criminal matters,
but in civil ones too.
c). Exchange of information ans statistics aiming to promote the mutual
knowledge of the different systems ans the existence of data bases.
LIAISON MAGISTRATES
SPAIN:
•United Kingdoom: ALED WILLIAMS
•France: Samuel Vuelta Simon.
•Spain: Manuel García Castellón.(France)
•Spain: Angel Llorente (Morocco)
•Morocco:
•FRANCE
EUROJUST,
ONE STEP MORE IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF AN
EUROPEAN SPACE OF
FREEDOM, SECURITY AND
LIBERTY.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Council Framework Decission of 28th
February 2002
¿ WHAT DOES EUROJUST CONSIST IN ?
A body of the European Union.
With its own legal personality.
With budgetarian initiative.
-
COMPOSITION
.National Members: Each Member State appoints one NM ( judge,
prosecutor or police officer having similar powers). Only NM are
entitled to vote in the College.
.One or more assistants (optional) who helps and replaces the NM.
EUROJUST FUNCTIONS
Coordination
Cooperation
EUROJUST FUNCTIONS
COOPERATION
To improve cooperation between the
competent authorities of the MS, in particular
facilitating the execution of international MLA
and the implementation of extradition
requests.
The traditional way to investigate.
EUROJUST FUNCTIONS
COORDINATION
To stimulate and improve the
coordination
of
investigations
and
prosecutions in the Member States, taking
in account any request emanating from a
competent authority of a MS and any
information provided.
A new way to investigate organized crime.
TWO WAYS IN ORDER TO FULFILL
ITS FUNCTIONS.
A.- As a College.
B.- Through one or more National
Members.
EUROJUST POWERS
-A) To ASK
authorities:
(request)
the
competent
- To undertake an investigation or prosecution of
specifis acts.
- To accept that one of them may be in a better position
to undertake an investigation or to prosecute specific
facts.
-To coordinate between the competent authorities of
the MS concerned.
- To set up a joint investigation team.
- To provide it with any information that is necessary to
Eurojust in order to carry out its tasks.
EUROJUST FIELD OF
ACTIVITY.COMPETENCES.
Serious crimes.
Organized Crime
Transnational crimes
SOLUTIONS PROVIDED BY
EUROJUST TO THE PROBLEMS
INHERENT TO MLA
A- Transmisión.
SOLUTIONS PROVIDED BY
EUROJUST TO PROBLEMS
INHERENT TO MLA
B- Different languages.
SOLUTIONS PROVIDED BY
EUROJUST TO PROBLEMS
INHERENT TO MLA
C-Different judicial systems.
SOLUTIONS PROVIDED BY
EUROJUST TO PROBLEMS
INHERENT TO MLA
D- Absence of follow up and control in the
execution of MLA requests.
Eurojust
More Effective Co-ordination & Co-operation
THE COORDINATION OF
INVESTIGATIONS AND
PROSECUTION AS AN
SPECIFIC TASK FOR
EUROJUST
The fight against organized crime
EUROJUST AND THE
OBTAINING OF INFORMATION
a.
b.
c.
d.
Information coming from request of help.
Information obtained through requests done by Eurojust to the
national competent authorities.
Information obtained from european units (Europol, Olaf)
through specific agreements or conventions.
Information coming from the use of powers given to NM by the
Member States.
¿ Information existing in national or european judicial data bases ?
.HOW, AS A MATTER OF FACT, EUROJUST CAN STIMULATE
COORDINATION.
Coordination meeting. ( All concerned authorities, Eurojust
is not a judicial forum): In order to facilitate informal
exchange of information.
Action plan for coordination and cooperation:
- Coordination:
a. To undertake investigations or prosecutions.
b. To set up a joint investigation team.
c. To adopt coordinated investigation measures.
d. To determine which authority is better placed to
continue the investigations and prosecution.
- Cooperation:
a. Coordination of the execution of MLA requests.
b. Speed up, monitoring of the execution of MLA
requests.
c. Preparation of MLA requests.
HI-TECH MEETING ROOMS
AND TRANSLATION FACILITIES
THE COORDINATION OF
INVESTIGATIONS AN
PROSECUTIONS
The most convenient moment
. THE BINDING EFFECT OF
EUROJUST DECISIONS
- College Decisions:
.EUROJUST AND THE INTERNATIONAL
JURISDICTION CONFLICT
,
Frequent when investigating organized
crime
Absence of an superior international
authority in order to solve them.
The non bis in idem principle
EUROJUST AND THE INTERNATIONAL
JURISDICTION CONFLICT
Problems:
- The existence of a higher authority:
jurisdictional or non jurisdictional.
- Setting up rules: flexible or stiff criteria.
EUROJUST AND THE INTERNATIONAL
JURISDICTION CONFLICT
Article 7 of the Decision of 28-2-2002 gives
Eurojust the power to ask to the competent
national authorities:
i) To undertake
prosecution.
an
investigation
or
ii) To accept that one of them may be in a
better position to investigate or prosecute.
EUROJUST AND THE INTERNATIONAL
JURISDICTION CONFLICT.
A. Framework Decisión of the 13th June
2002. EAW.
Article 16: Concurrence of different eaw.
EUROJUST AND THE INTERNATIONAL
JURISDICTION CONFLICT
.
Framework
Decisión
of
2002
concerning terrorism crimes.
EUROJUST Y
LOS CONFLICTOS DE JURISDICCIÓN .
(7) Conviene establecer normas sobre competencia para garantizar que
puedan emprenderse acciones judiciales eficaces contra cualquier delito
de terrorismo.
(Artículo 9)
Competencia y acciones penales
1.
Todos los Estados miembros adoptarán las medidas necesarias para
establecer su competencia respecto de los delitos a que se refieren los
artículos 1 a 4, en los siguientes casos:
a) el delito se ha cometido, total o parcialmente, en su territorio; todos
los Estados miembros podrán ampliar su jurisdicción cuando el delito se
cometa en el territorio de un Estado miembro;
b) el delito se ha cometido a bordo de un buque que enarbole su
pabellón o una aeronave matriculada en dicho Estado miembro;
c) el autor del delito es uno de sus nacionales o residente en él;
d) el delito se ha cometido por cuenta de una persona jurídica
establecida en su territorio;
e) el delito se ha cometido contra sus instituciones o ciudadanos, o
contra una institución de la Unión Europea o de un organismo creado
en virtud del Tratado constitutivo de la Comunidad Europea o del Tratado
de la Unión Europea y que tenga su sede en el Estado miembro de que
se trate.
EUROJUST AND THE INTERNATIONAL JURISDICTION
CONFLICT
Articulo 9)
2. Cuando un delito sea competencia de más de un Estado miembro y
cualquiera de estos pueda legítimamente iniciar acciones
judiciales por los mismos hechos, los Estados miembros
implicados colaborarán para decidir cuál de ellos llevará a cabo
las acciones judiciales contra los autores del delito con el
objetivo de centralizar, en la medida de lo posible, dichas
acciones en un solo Estado miembro. Con este fin, los Estados
miembros podrán recurrir a cualquier órgano o mecanismo
creado en el marco de la Unión Europea con el fin de facilitar la
cooperación entre sus autoridades judiciales y la coordinación de
sus actuaciones. Se tendrán en cuenta sucesivamente los
siguientes elementos para sumarse a ellas:
-
- ser el Estado miembro en cuyo territorio se hayan cometido los
hechos,
- ser el Estado miembro del que el autor sea nacional o
residente,
- ser el Estado miembro de origen de las víctimas,
- ser el Estado miembro en el que se haya encontrado al autor.
EUROJUST AND THE INTERNATIONAL
JURISDICTION CONFLICT
Flexibility
The European Convention in order to
fight crimes against the financial
interest of the European Comunity
Cases Referred
1 March
- 31 December 2001 = 192
1 January - 31 December 2002 = 202
1 January - 31 December 2003 = 300
1 January - 31 December 2004
= 382
Offences
Fraud (22%)
Drug Trafficking
22%
(22%)
Money Laundering
(8%)
Terrorism (6%)
REAL CASES
TIME-SHARE FRAUD.
Action plan.
1.- To identify victims of the criminal organization (XX) under prosecution in
Madrid.
2.- Victims of the XX organization should be able to claim through the Spanish
proceeding. As far as the normal way to do it means to travel to Spain in order
to perform a formal claim before the competent authority, some solutions to
avoid such a travel and expenses has to be devised.
Solution 1.
a) To undertake in every country an investigation procedure in order to
receive denunciations from all national victims and to collect evidence.
b)
Every national investigation will have to be finished before a given time,
coincident with time the spanish judge has to finish its investigation.
c)
Every national competent authority will have to forego his jurisdiction in
favour of the Spanish judge , so this last one could consider the claims from
the victims in the Spanish proceeding in order to obtain a decision on civil
liabilities.
d) The spanish competent authority will have to provide:
TIME-SHARE FRAUD.
- A document establishing:
. The requirements to be considered a victim of XX organization.
.The minimum data that a denunciation has to contain in order to be
considered in the Spanish proceedings.
.The formal requirements that have to be fulfilled by the investigation
developed by every country, allowing the different denunciations been legal and
efficient in order to be considered in the Spanish proceeding, avoiding victims to
be present before the Spanish judge.
3 3. Concerning the rest of the victims.
Their denunciations or claims have to be examined in order to establish which
are the different organizations that could have cheated them. This task could be
developed by Europol, through an AWF. Once this have been done, competent
authorities from every country, with the help of Eurojust, if requested, will have
to decide the strategy to be followed in order to further prosecution.
PRESTIGE CASE
.
The wrecking
19th November,
07.22 UTC
E. Action Plan.
Eurojust, EJN and the liaison magistrates may help the judicial
authorities in the preparation and execution of the request for
mutual legal assistance that will be necessary according to the
international scope of the case.
E. Action Plan.
The prosecution and the sentencing must be performed only by
the competent judicial authorities of one of the two countries that
are leading a judicial investigation.
E. Action Plan.
The best solution from the point of view of international judicial
cooperation will be that, once the two competent authorities have
received all the claims from victims, one should transfer it
procedure to the other.
E. Action Plan.
As far as the Convention for the transfer or procedure of the
Council of Europe has not been signed by France, some similar
and legal solution, giving a similar level of protection to victims
interest, has to be envisaged.
E. Action Plan.
Eurojust can give a legal assessment about the possibility of
obtaining, through a legal cooperation measure ( perhaps the
official denunciation foreseen in article 21 of the 1959
Convention for Mutual Legal Assistance), the same effects
produced by the transfer of procedures, or a different ones that
could preserve the interest of victims.
E. Action Plan.
As a first step, a questionnaire, about the possibilities, in the
different countries of the European Unión, of the official
denunciation could be prepared by the Casework Committee.
.
Trafic in human beings and children prostitution
1.- THE FACTS:
-a. In Rumania: A group of persons, offering a secure and legal
work abroad, is recruiting young girls. Using this method two
sisters, under eighteen year( 16 and 17), were recruited and
transported by the organization to Barcelona (Spain).
1.- THE FACTS:
-b. In Spain: The two young girls are received by other members
of the organization that keep them in custody untill they are sold to
different procurers.
The youngest sister is raped and forced to prostitution. She escapes
and denounces. After the first acts of investigation, the spanish
judge sent the minor back to Rumania in order that she will join
her parents. Once in Rumania she has been object of violence and
menaced by the organization forcing her to change her
denounciation.
The elder sister was sold in Barcelona to albanians in order to
prostitution. As she needed a false passport......
1.- THE FACTS:
-c. In France:.... she is driven to Paris by one of the albanians. In
Paris prostitutions acts are attempted without succes because of the
presence of the police. In their way back to Spain, when using a
false pasport, they were arrested in the frontier.
The man that is accompainig the elder sister is suspect of
participation in the murder of one person in Paris, under a different
identity. He is suspected to belong to an albanian organization
dedicated to explotation of prostitution.
2.- THE JUDICIAL INVESTIGATIONS.
a.- In Paris: The murder of one person comitted by the albanian
organization is investigated ( the albanian that wasaccompaining
the elder sister is one of the suspects, under different identity).
2.- THE JUDICIAL INVESTIGATIONS.
b.- In Perpignan: An investigation was begun because of the arrest
of one of the albanian procurers when, using false identity, was
trying to enter to Spain accompainig a minor provided with a false
passport.
2.- THE JUDICIAL INVESTIGATIONS.
c.-In Barcelona: An investigation is driven, because of the
denonciation of the younger sister, against some people that have
been arrested:
The members of the organization that received the two
sisters when they arrived from Rumania, and the ones that sold the
two to procurers.
The procurers that have been exploiting the prostitution of
the two young girls.
-
The persons that were facilitating their prostitution.
The procurers who raped one of the young girls.
3.- PROBLEMS RAISED.
a.- Neither Spain nor France are trying to investigate and prosecute
the acts related to trafick in human beings performed out of these
countries: The recruiting and the trasport.
The contact point from Rumania refers no on going investigation
in her country and the need of a formal denunciation to begin one.
3.- PROBLEMS RAISED.
b. The albanian procurer arrested in France, when crossing the frontier,is going
to be prosecuted in France and Spain.
In France: Because his participation in a murder in Paris, because the using of
false identity and buying a false passport for the minor young girl , and because
of the prostitution of the young girl. The proceedings conducted in Perpignan
are going to be sent to Paris, in order to acumulation to the ones conducted in
this town.
In Spain –Barcelona( in the same proceedings that are being conducted against
all the arrested people): Because of the participation in the ilegal trafick in
human beings ( he bought one of the minors, because of forcing her to
prostitution.
These two prosecutions need some coordination, in order to avoid one to be an
obstacle to the continuing of the other, as, according to the spanish rules of
procedure, it is necessary the presence in Spain, during the audience,of the
arrested suspect,who is under custody in France.
3.- PROBLEMS RAISED.
c. Letters of request from the competent judge in Paris have been
sent to a wrong court in Barcelona; their execution need some
coordination.
3.- PROBLEMS RAISED.
d. Due protection for one of the victims is necessary, not only for
her own security but in order to assure that she will not change her
denonciation and declaration when the audience will take place.
4.-ACTION PLAN.
a.- In order to promote an investigation in Rumania.
The spanish competent authority ( Juez de Instruccion 18 de
Barcelona), acting according to article 21 of the 1959 convention,
has to denunciate to the competent ones in Rumania the facts
relating recruiting and transport.
A doubt to be referred.
4.-ACTION PLAN.
b.- In order to coordinate the prosecution of the albanian procurer arrested in
France.
Spain will continue its prosecution against him because of acts of trafick in
human beings and prostitution. In order to do so, the obligatory declaration of
the suspect after the “procesamiento” will be performed through letter of
request. In order to obtain the presence in Spain of the suspect during the
audience, an extradition shall be promoted and, once ih has been accepted, a
temporary transfer will be possible.
French NM should have to check the possibilities of succes of a prosecution
because of the act related to the prostitution of the elder sister in France, in order
to advise that the prosecution for this kind of acts should be undertaken by
Spain. The risk: In case of absolution in France, the principle “ne bis in idem”
will avoid sentencing in Spain on this kind of crime.
4.-ACTION PLAN.
c.- In order to protect the younger sister, the spanish judge should
send a letter of request to the competent authority in Rumania
asking them, either the adoption of measures for the protecton of
wirnesses foreseen by its national law, or offering the possibility of
transfering the witness to Spain wher she will be submitted to the
measures foreseen by spanish law.
.
Bananas Case
.
ALCOHOL CASES
Cases Referred
1 March
- 31 December 2001 = 192
1 January - 31 December 2002 = 202
1 January - 31 December 2003 = 300
1 January - 31 December 2004
= 382