Malaysia-Indonesia Sign Agreement On Legal Cooperation

By Ahmad Fuad Yahya JAKARTA, April 3 (Bernama) -- The Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia and the Attorney-General's Office of Indonesia on Monday signed an agreement on legal cooperation in areas of common interest, including dealing with transnational crimes that impact on both countries. Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail signed the agreement on behalf of Malaysia while Indonesia was by represented by its Attorney-General Basrief Arief. The signing ceremony took place at the Indonesian Attorney-General's Office here. Speaking at the ceremony, Abdul Gani said the MoU among other things included cooperation in the prosecution of serious crimes which involve the national of one party in the territory of the other party. It includes, where appropriate, the notififation on the charging of the offenders, where possible before the charge was preferred or otherwise within a reasonable time. It also included the assignment of legal representation by the court of criminal prosecution involving serious crimes and also that the criminal courts' decisions be made available to the relevant designated authorities, he said. The agreement with Indonesia is the fourth for Malaysia's AG's Chambers after similar Memoranda of Understanding were concluded with Uzbekistan, Oman and Egypt. "During my 10-year tenure as Attorney-General, I have seen the evolution of new forms of transnational crimes as well as their exponential increase and impact. I have also witnessed the creativity and ingenuity of organised criminal groups as they strive to evade the long arm of the law. "Where once it was enough to have expertise to deal with serious crimes like murder, drug trafficking and money laundering, today we have to contend with international terrorism, trafficking in persons, people smuggling, wildlife trafficking and not least, extremely lucrative economic and cyber crimes," he said. Abdul Gani said it was for this reason that in mid-2009, he had embarked on an ambitious programme to establish formal cooperative links with Attorneys General offices around the world through the conclusion of agreements and memoranda of understanding similar to the one that was signed Monday. The areas of interests, he said may vary according to the interests and priorities of the parties but the end goal was to establish channels to share their collectice experience, knowledge and laws, to enhance the capacity and skills of their officers and to provide a conducive avenue to resolve bilateral issues from the legal perspective, where possible. Basrief, at the same press conference, said labour issues involving Indonesian nationals, illegal fishing in the territorial waters of either countries, illegal logging, terrorism and drug trafficking were among topics that were of mutual concern of both countries. Abdul Gani, to a question from a reporter on cooperation between the two countries to nab fugitives of corruption from the republic, gave the assurance that Malaysia would give it full cooperation in such mattetrs if asked by the Indonesian authorities in accordance to the legal framework involving the two countries. "We will not protect criminals wherever they are from. Neither will we protect criminals from Malaysia," he stressed. -- BERNAMA