Mutual Legal Assistance / International Cooperation and Asset Recovery
HM Procureur is the central authority for providing mutual legal assistance. This is the process whereby one jurisdiction (the requested state) takes steps to assist another (the requesting state) for the purposes of investigations or proceedings under the criminal justice system (including in rem civil proceedings related to the proceeds of crime) in the requesting state.
These steps may include one or more of the following measures:
Obtaining documents for use as evidence in the requesting state,
Freezing, seizure, or confiscation of assets within the requested state (and where appropriate sharing those assets with the requesting state),
Freezing, seizure, or confiscation of the instrumentalities of crime within the requested state,
Taking evidence on oath from persons within the requested state which can then be admitted as evidence in the requesting state,
Service of judicial documents from the requesting state (e.g. a witness summons) on persons within the requested state,
Facilitating the voluntary appearance of persons for the purpose of providing information or testimony to the requesting state.
Because of their coercive nature, the first three measures listed above are subject to a dual criminality test. In broad terms this means that assistance will only be provided if the criminal conduct underlying the request for assistance is conduct which would constitute an indictable offence under the law of the Bailiwick if it occurred within the Bailiwick.
Mutual Legal Assistance Handbook
A Handbook setting out further information on the provision of mutual legal assistance is currently under preparation. In the meantime, an earlier version is available here MLA Handbook [221kb] but please note that some of the contact points in this document have been changed and the contact points below should be used instead.