Third Mock Trial on Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT)

6-7 August 2019, Islamabad: As one of the objectives of the Pakistan's Action to Counter Terrorism (PACT) project, strengthening the capacities of department on countering the financing of terrorism remain among the top priorities in the prevailing context. Hence, in continuation of the previous Mock Trial Workshops, a third session was organized, on 'Countering the Financing of Terrorism', by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) under its PACT Project in collaboration with the European Union (EU), on 6-7 August 2019 in Lahore. In total 30 participants from a wide range of institutions including Counter Terrorism Departments, Judiciary, Prosecution, and other Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) attended. The Workshop was contributing to UN SDG 16 aimed at strengthening of institutions and enhancing peace and justice.

The objectives of the mock trial were to acquaint the participants with the International, National and institutional frameworks for CFT; with INTERPOL's Law Enforcement Databases their role in terrorism cases; and emerging sources of and threats from TF. The Mock Trial provided the participants with a friendly platform to replicate a case scenario of an actual trial, for them to better understand the real-life case with best practices imparted through a variety of teaching methodology to resolve the scenario. Experts from UNODC and INTERPOL delivered the lectures. 

Mr Divett- Programme Officer from the Terrorism Prevention Branch, initiated the first day with welcome remarks and outlined the sessions of the workshop. The first session included presentations on the legislative frameworks of the UN, and related international standards and Pakistan's national legislations that deal with the subject of countering the financing of terrorism. Mr Hyung Keun Yoon from INTERPOL presented on the INTERPOL's Law Enforcement Databases and how they can assist the Financial Investigator in terrorism cases. His lecture elaborated upon INTERPOL's background, its structure and the features of promoting inclusion of financial information, developing direct relations with FIUs and identifying vulnerable commodities. The participants were then introduced to the challenges faced by FIUs in the face of the threats imposed by several typologies of terrorist financing through a presentation given by Mr. Faisal Mahmood. It was highlighted that terrorist networks quickly adopt and transit to new methods and tools of financing themselves like that of hawalas and crowd funding. Mr. Verralls- International CT Consultant from UK, stated that police has the prime stake in CT investigation cases. He also highlighted that UK also utilizes a four-faceted multiagency approach to investigating cases that concentrate on core objectives of Preventing, Protecting, Preparing and Pursuing. Each presentation was interactive in nature which encouraged active participation and followed by a question answer session.

The second day of workshop primarily remained action-oriented in which a group exercise of six hours was planned. The participants were divided into groups to work on scenario-based exercises. Each group was instructed to analyze case studies related to financial investigations and prosecutions related to financing of terrorism. The participants worked on the tasks at hand through extended networking during lunch breaks. The representative of each group then shared the final in-depth analysis and conclusion of case studies with the rest of the participants.

At the conclusion of the workshop, Mr. Divett gave his closing remarks and appreciated the persistent efforts of the UNODC in providing the national officers with platforms that help enrich their capacities in dealing with terrorism. He also expressed gratitude towards the European Union for extending financial support; the event was formally closed with distributing participation certificate to the attendees.