23-25 November 2021
CASC network in cooperation with the Academy of Law Enforcement of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and UNODC's Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries convened a financial investigation training in Nur-Sultan from 23 to 25 November 2021. The activity also served as an opportunity to foster closer cooperation with other networks, including SEEPAG and ARIN WCA. 60 criminal justice practitioners from CASC members (Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Uzbekistan) as well as Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Greece attended the workshop.
The training sessions were led by UNODC experts and representatives of the Asset Recovery Interagency Network of West and Central Asia (ARIN WCA) and introduced the participants to practical technicalities and methodology for undertaking financial investigations. In this sense, the CASC network and ARIN WCA were recommended as complementary channels of communication that can be used by investigators and prosecutors to conduct consultations prior to the transmission of MLA requests and to seek evidence from counterparts in a foreign country.
On the margins of the training, two coordination meetings were held with the Head of the International Department of the Law Enforcement Academy of Kazakhstan and representatives of other judicial cooperation and law enforcement networks which laid the basis for future cooperation with the CASC network. In addition, the CASC network facilitated regional and inter-regional bilateral meetings on judicial cooperation cases.