The Council of Europe is currently having a very good cooperation with the authorities in Kazakhstan in the area of fight against economic crimes, Head of the Economic Crime and Cooperation Division of the Council of Europe Mustafa Ferati said in an interview with Kazinform correspondent Arnur Rakhymbekov.
“Our cooperation spans across three subjects in supporting Kazakhstan to develop effective measures to fight corruption, money laundering, countering of terrorist financing and also to introduce effective measures in asset recovery process,” Ferati noted.
“So, I will go one step back by referring little bit to the overall cooperation in the field of fight against economic crimes because that as a process precedes the asset recovery,” he said.
According to him, the Council of Europe supports Kazakhstani authorities to develop measures to implement recommendations provided by the Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe (GRECO).
“As many know in your country, Kazakhstan is a member of the Group of States against Corruption and has been evaluated in the 1st and 2nd round. And among other aspects looked at in this round there is the aspect of confiscation,” he pointed out.
“Similarly, in the area of anti-money laundering there is a requirement that authorities have capacity to confiscate proceeds of crime,” Ferati said.
“In some cases there are situations where these assets have moved outside of the country and this is where the process of asset recovery comes into play be it to recover the assets within the jurisdiction or from abroad. In this regard the assistance that we have been providing is cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office to introduce a strong mechanism of asset recovery and asset management,” he noted.
“What we can do it support to build the capacity to do that. But that the Council of Europe doesn’t have a direct role in the process. We will certainly work with the authorities to provide the necessary lead in designing the legislative and institutional framework, but also building institutional capacities to conduct this,” Mustafa Ferati said in conclusion.
