The Council of Europe, through the EU/Council of Europe Central Asia Rule of Law joint Programme and its Action on Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime in Central Asia, organised a workshop on Adjudication of economic crime cases for the judges and prosecutors of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The workshop took place in Bishkek on 23-24 November 2023 and gathered 29 judges and prosecutors and the representatives of the High School of Justice under the Supreme Court and the Training Centre of the State Financial Intelligence Service (Kyrgyz FIU). 

The workshop was organised to enhance the capacities of the judiciary and the prosecution in the Kyrgyz Republic in dealing with economic crime cases. The trainers of judges and prosecutors from Bishkek and regional courts and prosecution offices were also present in the workshop, who will further disseminate the knowledge obtained to their colleagues in different courts and prosecution offices in Kyrgyz Republic. 

The workshop provided the participants with up-to-date information to improve their understanding of the concept of financial investigation and how it can be used in the fight against economic crime, as well as the judicial challenges in seizure and confiscation with non-conviction-based confiscation (NCBC). The participants of the workshop have become more aware of the best practices in other jurisdictions in conducting the judicial control over pre-trial investigation in the money laundering and financing of terrorism (ML/TF) cases as well as examples of the judicial proceedings, processes with direct and indirect evidence, standard of proof and evaluation of evidence of ML cases and trial management of ML cases. The participants also discussed the trends and main challenges in the seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from economic crimes and highlighted the need for national and international cooperation in adjudicating economic crimes, as well as the tools to manage such coordination. 

This activity was organised by the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” 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 Council of Europe.