UNODC continues to enhance the capacities of the competent authorities of Kyrgyzstan in countering the financing of terrorism

On 7-10 June, UNODC, with the expert support of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, held in the Issyk-Kul region (Kyrgyzstan) the train-the-trainer Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Advanced Investigation Course for Kyrgyz competent authorities.

The course is the fourth in a series of courses and forms part of a comprehensive capacity-building programme focused on analysis, investigation, and inter-agency cooperation aimed to support national efforts to counter the financing of terrorism. The State Service on Financial Monitoring under the Ministry of Finance of Kyrgyzstan is the national partner in the implementation of the course.

The train-the-trainer course was conducted by five national trainers represented by the law enforcement agencies of Kyrgyzstan. The training is an exercise-based course customized to the training needs of the country.

The course brought together 21 representatives from the General Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Department on Combating Economic Crimes under the General Prosecutor’s Office, State Service on Financial Monitoring under the Ministry of Finance of the country.

Each session provided a scenario-based practical exercise reflecting the topics of the lecture. The separate scenario-based exercises were linked together by one narrative, so the participants could focus on the details of the fictional case and come back to the topics covered by the previous sessions. That helped reinforce the learning. All the scenarios and supporting materials were tailored to Kyrgyzstan in consultation with national experts who simulated a real-life investigation based on current priority threats.

The financial intelligence unit (FIU) has good instruments for international cooperation and experts provided practical examples and showed how to use FIU instruments for CFT.

The training course is implemented under UNODC Programme for Central Asia with the expert support of the UNODC Global Programme against Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and the Financing of Terrorism (GPML) and with financial support of Norway and Russia.