Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan continues its effort for enhancing asset recovery process

Nowadays, detection, tracing and confiscation of stolen assets are of great importance and are essential tools in the fight against organized crimes. Azerbaijan is keen on establishing effective mechanisms for asset recovery and learning international best practices for combating crime effectively.

Asset recovery and fighting against all kinds of organized crime are included in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16.4 and Chapter V of United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Since the Republic of Azerbaijan is a State Party to UNCAC, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan takes necessary steps to improve legislation, tools and methods to tackle the issues.

According to Directive 2014/42/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014, each member should create a competent national asset recovery authority to assist in the tracing and discovery of property related to crimes that may be the subject of freezing, seizure and confiscation orders in accordance with criminal and civil procedures. To fulfill this function, the new structure of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan was approved by Order No. 2088 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated 10 June 2020 and the Department for Coordination of Special Confiscation (the Department) Issues was established along with other departments. The main functions of the department include coordinating the activities of the General Prosecutor's Office for asset recovery, conducting special confiscation, assisting in the discovery and tracking of assets, managing property subject to special confiscation, taking necessary measures for the implementation of property restoration, as well as tracking property in criminal cases, collecting relevant information through the international communication network or from open sources, and, if necessary, applying for operational search orders.

As the tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of assets is a complex and time-consuming process and often involves several jurisdictions, international cooperation is considered one of the main pillars in this field.

Under “European Neighbourhood Policy” Plan, the European Union, since 1 February 2022, has funded Twinning Project “Support to the Reform of the Criminal Asset Recovery and Management System in Azerbaijan”, which aims to facilitate learning the best practices of respective bodies of European countries. The project covers developing a legislative and institutional framework, turning the Department into a fully operational and national asset recovery office and improving its structure and activities, internal and external relations, as well as developing professional skills of the members of the Department. To achieve these goals, benchmarking visits to the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Italy and other foreign countries were organized to study closely the experiences of the competent state institutions in the detection, investigation, tracking, recovery and management of assets. To further speed up the asset recovery process and achieve effective results, intensive work is being conducted in the areas of the introduction of effective mechanisms for asset management, extended and civil confiscation, the concept of parallel financial investigation and other issues relating to national legislation by studying the progressive practices and legislation of some foreign countries.

In addition, with the support of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), study trips have been organized for the employees of the Department to familiarize themselves with the activities and advanced experiences of competent institutions of several European countries in the specified field.

The Republic of Azerbaijan is also an observer to the Camden Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network (CARIN), as well as the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network in West and Central Asia (ARIN- WCA), an informal network of law enforcement and judicial practitioners in the field of asset tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation.

Undoubtedly, these initiatives emphasize the importance of fighting corruption and other organized crimes and calls for closer cooperation of the international communities in order to return stolen assets to their rightful owners.

Source: Prosecutor General’s Office, Azerbaijan