Bilateral meetings were organised with national authorities in Azerbaijan to advance the prosecution and adjudication of money laundering and asset recovery cases. Discussions were held with the Supreme Court, the General Prosecutor's Office, the Anti-Corruption General Directorate under the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Financial Monitoring Service and the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan.
The focus of these meetings was:
- the Supreme Court’s Plenary Decision, dated February 2023. This plenary decision guides the judiciary and law enforcement in the prosecution and processing of money laundering cases.
- the mechanisms used by the national authorities for the seizure and confiscation of illicit proceeds of economic crimes. Currently, the Government of Azerbaijan is introducing extended and non-conviction-based confiscation instruments, which would lead to a more effective framework for the recovery of proceeds from crime for the benefit of the Azerbaijani state and society.
The critical aspect of whether a conviction for a predicate offence shall or shall not be a prerequisite for a conviction for money laundering and the challenges faced by national authorities in the area of prosecution and adjudication of money laundering and asset recovery cases, were discussed.
The meetings concluded that money laundering as a standalone offence needs to be further enhanced and explained in the Supreme Court’s Plenary Decision. Additional suggestions for good practices in the area of processing money laundering and asset recovery cases will be delivered to the national authorities as a follow-up to these bilateral meetings.
These meetings are part of the of the European Union and Council of Europe joint programme “Partnership for Good Governance”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in the framework of the project "Preventing and fighting economic crime in Azerbaijan”.
