OSCE hosted workshop for CA legal experts on international co-operation to combat crime

ALMATY. July 14. KAZINFORM The fourth annual workshop on international co-operation in criminal matters for legal experts in Central Asia, co-hosted by the OSCE in co-operation with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), begun in Almaty on July 11.

The three-day meeting brought together more than 60 practitioners from the five Central Asian States, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Experts from Australia, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation and the UNODC participated in it, the press release of the OSCE Center in Astana said.

The OSCE Strategic Police Matters Unit, the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities and the OSCE Centre in Astana helped organize the workshop, which focused on common issues for all countries in the region, including extradition and mutual legal assistance, combating money laundering, confiscating criminal assets and the exchange of data from criminal records.

The workshop provided participants with the occasion to network and discuss opportunities for international co-operation and mutual legal assistance.

"This workshop builds on an OSCE Ministerial Council decision encouraging the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and will support improving cross border co-operation and fighting organized crime," said OSCE Senior Police Adviser Knut Dreyer.

The workshop was jointly funded by the United States, Australia and Norway.