With a view to strengthen capacities of national authorities to tackle money laundering offences, a two-day online training on FATF standards on money laundering criminalisation and Ukraine's obligations under the Warsaw Convention was held on 11 and 13 November 2020, with 20 Prosecutors. The activity was organized and delivered jointly by the Council of Europe and the newly established Prosecutor’s Training Centre of Ukraine, thus promoting its ownership and sustainability in the country. It aimed to enhance Ukrainian prosecutors’ practical understanding on proper interpretation and implementation of the Warsaw Convention provisions and the updated money laundering criminal offence under the national legislation. Participants in the training represented different departments of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The training extensively covered topics such as international standards and obligations related to money laundering, standard of proof, evidence and proving cases, human rights aspects and respectful case-law of the ECtHR, financial investigations, international cooperation, the role of the prosecutor in money laundering cases, etc. With a view to develop both theoretical knowledge and practical skills, the training combined presentations by the international and national experts with case studies. It is expected that the training will result in integration of international obligations under the Warsaw Convention into the national practice, in particular through investigations and prosecutions under the updated money laundering criminal offence. Moreover, participants benefited from insights on effective methods of investigating money laundering without the need to prove a predicate offence beforehand.

The training was organized and delivered as part of the EU/CoE Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) II Project on “Strengthening measures to counter money laundering and financing of terrorism in Ukraine”, co-funded by the EU and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.