The Economic Crime and Cooperation Division of the Council of Europe has organised a peer-to-peer exchange on recovery and management of illicit assets for representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Offices of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan on 27-30 May 2024.

The first part of the visit took part in Belgium, where the participants had the opportunity to visit the Court of Mechelen and exchange with local investigative judges and prosecutors specialised in economic crime and cybercrime matters. During the exchanges at the Central Office for Seizure and Confiscation (COSC) the participants were provided an overview of the asset recovery and asset management system in Belgium, together with complementary case studies. The meetings were finalised with a visit to the Finshop Brussels, which is a centre responsible for the realisation of movable assets received from public services, such as COSC. The discussion with Finshop representatives allowed to better understand the institution’s role and procedures applied for selling seized and confiscated assets.

The second part of the peer-to-peer exchange took part in Bern, Switzerland, where participants met different competent authorities involved in the asset recovery and management processes. In an introductory meeting, the Federal Office of Justice (FoJ) presented the legal and institutional asset recovery framework as well as the mutual legal assistance (MLA) framework. Following FoJ, exchanges were held with the representatives of the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS), the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Canton of Bern.

Besides getting a deep understanding regarding the two jurisdictions’ systems, legal frameworks and practices, participants could also make use of this opportunity to establish direct contacts with their peers in Belgium and Switzerland. For instance, present prosecutors from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan could clarify the existing requirements in Belgium and Switzerland as regards the receipt and execution of MLA requests and discuss the status of the ongoing negotiations of bilateral agreements covering mutual legal assistance requests. Finally, the discussion also touched upon the benefits of the Council of Europe Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (ETS No.30, Strasbourg, 20.04.1959) and its additional protocols.

This activity was organised by the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” in the framework of the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2024, a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the latter. The Action is aimed at strengthening capacities to fight and prevent economic crime in five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan).