Under Article 112 paragraph 1 item 2. of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, I hereby
adopt the following DECREE on the promulgation of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The Criminal Procedure Code, adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia at its sitting of the 12 th special session in 2011, on September 26, 2011, is hereby promulgated.
PR Number 89
Belgrade, September 28, 2011
President of the Republic
Boris Tadic, authentic signature
This Code establishes rules whose aim is to prevent the conviction of any innocent person, and enabling a perpetrator of a criminal offence to be sanctioned in accordance with conditions envisaged by the Criminal Code, based on lawfully and fairly conducted proceedings. This Code also establishes rules on conditional release, rehabilitation, termination of security measures and legal consequences of conviction, exercise of the rights of persons wrongly deprived of liberty and wrongly convicted, confiscation of proceeds from crime, resolution of restitution claims and issuance of wanted circulars and notices.
Definitions of Terms
Article 2
Certain terms used in this Code have the following meaning:
1) a suspect is a person against whom a competent public authority has undertaken a
certain act stipulated under this Code in the pr e-investigation proceedings due to existence of
grounds of suspicion that he committed a criminal offence, and a person against whom an
investigation is being conducted;
2) a defendant is a person against whom an indictment has been filed but not yet
confirmed, or against whom a motion to indict, a private prosecution or a motion to pronounce a
security measure of compulsory psychiatric treatment has been submitted, and the date of the
trial or hearing for pronouncing a criminal sanction has not yet been set, but also a term used as a
general term for a suspect, an accused person, a defendant and a convicted person;
3) an accused is a person against whom an indictment has been confirmed and a person
against whom a trial date or a hearing has been scheduled in summary criminal proceedings for
pronouncing a criminal sanction based on a motion to indict, a private prosecution or a motion to
pronounce a security measure of compulsory psychiatric treatment;
4) a convicted person is a person determined by a final decision of a court of law to have
committed a criminal offence or an unlawful offence determined by law as a criminal offence,
unless he is regarded as not convicted under the provisions of the Criminal Code;
5) a prosecutor is a public prosecutor, private prosecutor and subsidiary prosecutor;
6) a public prosecutor is the Republic Public Prosecutor, an appellate public prosecutor, a
higher public prosecutor, a basic public prosecutor, a public prosecutor of special jurisdiction,
deputy public prosecutors and persons authorised by law to deputise for the same;
7) a private prosecutor is a person who has submitted a private prosecution in connection with a criminal offence prosecutable by law by private prosecution;
8) a subsidiary prosecutor is a person w ho has taken over prosecution from a public prosecutor;
9) a party is the prosecutor and the defendant;
10) charges are an indictment, a motion to indict, a private prosecution and a motion to pronounce a security measure, but also a term serving as a general expression for an act by the prosecutor containing the elements of the criminal offence or unlawful offence determined by law as a criminal offence;
11) an injured party is a person whose personal or property right ha s been violated or jeopardised by a criminal offence;
12) a representative of the injured party is the legal representative and proxy of the injured party, subsidiary prosecutor and private prosecutor;
13) the police is an authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, an officer of that authority and an officer of a corresponding international authority w ho, in accordance with international law and this Code, undertakes actions on the territory of the Re public of Serbia, its vessel or aircraft, as well as other public authority with police competences, where provided for by this Code or other statute;
14) proceedings are pre-investigation proceedings and criminal proceedings;
15) an authority conducting proceedings is the public prosecutor, the court or other public
authority before which the proceedings are being conducted;
16) the competent bar association is the bar association with which a lawyer is registered;
17) grounds for suspicion is a se t of facts which indirectly s how that a certain person is
the perpetrator of a criminal offence;
18) grounded suspicion is a set of facts that directly show that a cert ain person is the
perpetrator of a criminal offence;
19) justified suspicion is a set of facts which directly substantiate grounded suspicion and
justify the filing of an indictment;
20) certainty is a conclusion about indubitable existence or non-existence of facts, based
on objective standards of logic;
21) basic examination is the questioning of witnesses, expert witnesses or other persons
being questioned by a party, defence counsel or an injured party who proposed the questioning;
22) cross-examination is the questioning of witnesses, expert witnesses or other persons
being questioned by an opposing party or the injured party, following the basic examination;
23) deprivation of liberty is an arrest, keeping in custody, prohibition of leaving an
abode, detention, and a stay in an institution which is under this Code counted into detention;
24) common law marriage is a permanent personal association regulated by law, as well
as an association in which a child was born to the parties irrespective of the duration of the
association;
25) other permanent personal association is an association of two persons which by its duration and mutual obligations has the properties of family life;
26) an instrument is every object or computer data suitable for or designated as proof of a
fact being determined in proceedings (Article 83 paragraphs 1 and 2);
27) optical recording is photographic, cinematographic, television or other recording by
a technical device which makes a video recording or a video and audio recording;
28) audio recording is the recording of speech and other sound effects by technical
devices which make an audio recording;
29) an electronic record is audio, video or graphical data in electronic (digital) form;
30) an electronic address is a set of characters, letters, numbers and signals intended for
determining the origin of a connection;
31) an electronic document is a set of data which is defined as an electronic document
under the law regulating electronic documents;
32) an electronic signature is the set of data which is defined as an electronic signature
under the law regulating the electronic signature signature item 2) ;
33) an organised criminal group is a group of three or more persons which exists for a
certain period of time and acts in collusion with the aim of committing one or more criminal
offences punishable by a term of imprisonment of four years or more, for the purpose of direct or
indirect acquisition of pecuniary or other gain;
34) organised crime represents the commissi on of criminal offences by an organised criminal group or its members;
35) the criminal code is the Criminal C ode and other law of the Republic of Serbia containing provisions of criminal law;
36) a transaction is the treatment of property defined as a transact ion under the law that
regulates the prevention of money laundering laundering item 5) ;
37) data record is the record of data on the parties, business relations and transactions
maintained by obligors under the law that regulates the prevention of money laundering;
38) classified data is secret data and foreign secret data defined in accordance with the law that regulates secrecy items 1) of data.
Where in the provisions of this Code several authorities of proceedings authorised to undertake the same procedural action are specified, the authorisation shall refer only to that authority of proceedings which is competent to undertake it in the appropriate part of the proceeding