Via a second circular, the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office sets the record straight, reiterating that all public prosecutors across the Kingdom are called upon to look particularly into cases related to money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The details.
In a circular addressed to the King’s Attorneys General at the Courts of Appeal and to the King’s Prosecutors at the Courts of First Instance and of which Hespress Fr holds a copy, the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office calls all prosecutors to order through the kingdom.
Indeed, this circular, which follows a first already sent on November 14, 2019 to the prosecution, does not miss the opportunity to raise their suspenders: ” More than a year after the circular was sent and despite the positive results recorded, there was a certain difference between the prosecution services in terms of the implementation of its content. “.
Thus, it emerges from the said circular that the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office reproaches certain prosecution offices for not submitting to the public prosecution in Rabat copies of the proceedings initiated concerning the main offenses, despite the existence of indicators and tangible evidence on suspicion of money laundering, in particular in certain cases where there has been the seizure of a large quantity of prohibited products or large sums of money or the commission of criminal activity within a framework organized or cross-border.
Other blunders were also notified in the document.
“The majority of prosecutors do not also carry out parallel financial investigations to verify suspicions of money laundering, especially as statistics for 2020 reveal that prosecutors in ten districts of the courts of appeal have ordered financial investigations. parallel in predicate offenses, while the prosecutors in eleven judicial districts of the courts of appeal have not conducted any parallel financial investigation, ”reveals the same source.
Worse, the presidency of the prosecution regrets that only three prosecutors have requested information from the financial intelligence processing unit, despite the large database available to the latter and which could enrich judicial inquiries.
And also to note that several prosecutors do not activate the procedures of international cooperation, specifying that the investigation is limited to the national territory even if some cases include a foreign element or are related to funds or to individuals being in the foreign.
The right way to go
” Now and after the country entered the phase of enhanced surveillance by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and was subjected to an action plan to be executed within the set deadlines to no longer appear on the negative lists of the Group, the prosecution is called upon to pay particular attention to cases of money laundering, terrorist financing and predicate offenses », We point out in the circular, highlighting that these cases do not concern only the public prosecutor in Rabat which is competent at the national level in the cases of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, but indeed all the offices of the Kingdom.
” All the prosecutors of the Kingdom are entities that manage investigations into predicate offenses and can detect cases of suspicion of money laundering as part of these investigations.“, We explain from the same source.
This is how the message of the circular is clear and limpid: “ To effectively contribute to the execution of the action plan set for the country in the section relating to the public prosecution, the prosecution services are called upon to strictly comply with the instructions that are the subject of the circular published by the presidency of the prosecution on November 14, 2019, while ensuring to implement a set of measures and procedures “.
Drawing up these measures which relate to the realization of parallel financial investigations during the investigation of the predicate offenses to detect cases of suspicion of money laundering and their submission to the competent prosecution, the same source also insists on the fact of request financial information from the financial intelligence processing unit as soon as the case involves financial aspects.
The correct procedure to follow also concerns the implementation of international cooperation measures with a view to monitoring individuals and funds abroad, as well as the implementation of seizure and freezing procedures and the formulation of requests. to the court for the confiscation of funds in cases authorized by law, while creating specific registers to record information relating to seized funds and objects, given the importance of statistics relating to these measures in the operation of assessment to which the country is subjected, and by providing monthly statistics on this subject, it is specified.
In addition, it is also planned to hold meetings with deputy prosecutors in order to make them aware of the importance of the instructions contained in this circular and previous ones, and to mobilize them to take them into account when dealing with this kind. business …
.
