05-1 Cambodia
05-1 Cambodia
Khemlin Ku*
I. INTRODUCTION
The Ministry of Justice is delegated authority by the Royal Government to perform the
mission of guidance and administration of justice in the Kingdom of Cambodia. To achieve
this goal, the MOJ has several functions namely to assure justice for every one under the
laws, to organize and monitor all levels of the administrative processes of tribunals and
prosecution institutions, to ensure the functioning of all sectors and levels of tribunals and
prosecution institutions, to ensure the functioning of the courts and all prosecutors and to
prepare various laws governing, and conduct international relationships associated with,
justice and relevant laws.
To fulfill these functions, the Ministry of Justice established the Central Authority in
2011 under the jurisdiction of the General Department of Research and Judicial Development
to facilitate mutual legal assistance, the transfer of prisoners, and extradition in criminal, civil,
and commercial matters.
• Receive, control, and facilitate requests for extradition, prisoner transfers and
mutual legal assistance in criminal, civil, and commercial cases.
• Send requests received from the requesting state to the applicable Cambodian
agency; and to return completed requests to requesting state;
• Organize information to be sent and monitor all received and sent requests to
ensure effective and efficient communication;
• Organize, review and facilitate the translation of requests, case files, evidence,
and documents relevant to legal assistance;
*
Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Kingdom of Cambodia.
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• Manage data of requests on mutual legal assistance and organize legal documents,
entering information into our database and submitted online to the Ministry of
Justice’s website;
• Ensure the information and evidence is protected from losing and using, changing,
or revealing without authorization or other improper use;
Currently, there is no legal framework governing the issue. But in the future, this issue
will be governed by Title IV of the New Code of Criminal Procedure. These provisions apply
by default to relations between Cambodia and other countries in the absence of extradition or
MLA treaties. Currently, Cambodia has existing bilateral treaties on extradition with
Thailand, Lao PDR, China, and South Korea.
The diplomatic procedure precedes judicial procedure. The competent authorities of the requesting
State must approach Cambodia by diplomatic channels (Embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA) by written request accompanied by supporting documents. Once the request is received, the
MFA will forward this request to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) which will verify the authenticity of
the request. Upon verification, the MOJ may request the Prosecutor General of the Appellate Court to
issue an arrest or detention order of the interested person staying in the territory of the Kingdom of
Cambodia.
The judicial procedure precedes the diplomatic procedure. The concerned court of Cambodia must
send a request with supporting documents to the MOJ, which will refer the dossier to the MFA for
diplomatic action. Once Cambodia’s request is received, the competent authorities of the requested
State will verify the authenticity of the request for further action. During implementation of the
MLA process, the Cambodian CA has received a request from Vietnam, and is still
processing the request. In addition, we have also received requests from South Korea.
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IV. THE VALIDATION OF EXTRADITION REQUESTS
All extradition requests shall be submitted to the Royal Government of Cambodia through
diplomatic channels. Each request shall contain supporting documents. The supporting
documents shall include:
• The legal provisions applicable to such offence and the possible sentence; and
All documents shall be signed, officially sealed and enveloped. If they are not in the Khmer,
French or English languages, the request shall be accompanied by a certified translation of
the documents into one of the three languages.
V. CONCLUSION
The procedure for international cooperation in the judicial sector in Cambodia is crucial,
using diplomatic channels by forwarding the request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
then to the Ministry of Justice, which reviews the request for Cambodia and issues the final
decision whether to agree or disagree.
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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION: MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE
AND EXTRADITION
Kuy Chhay*
I. INTRODUCTION
Cambodia supports anti-corruption measures in every aspect, at all levels and in all
areas through education, dissemination, prevention and law enforcement. Fighting
corruption, strengthening of public financial management and improving good
governance are the key factors to alleviate poverty and promote people’s welfare.
Through global experiences, monitoring and eliminating corruption are the most difficult,
complicated tasks, and are also time consuming, but it remains a high priority of the
Royal Government of the fourth legislative mandate. It is generally known that anti-
corruption law provides us with legal mechanisms which are necessary for fighting
corruption effectively. In light of this, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has
been committed to creating and adopting this law after having consulted enthusiastically
with stakeholders and having reviewed existing laws.
The Anti-Corruption Unit has been mandated to pursue three vital roles: 1) Public
education and prevention; 2) Law enforcement and suppressing corruption offences and
3) Mass support backed by strategic partnership for cooperation regionally and
internationally. With respect to Extradition in General Criminal Offences and
Extradition in Corruption Offences, the Code of Criminal Procedure (2007) has been
applied.
The Anti-Corruption Law in Cambodia was adopted on 17 April 2010 and regarding
the necessity the law was amended and thus, entered into force for full implementation on
2 August 2011. Its purpose is to combat all forms, all natures and all levels of corrupt
practices, regardless of political position throughout the Kingdom of Cambodia.
*
Assistant to Anti-Corruption Unit, Kingdom of Cambodia.
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III. ACTIVITIES OF THE ANTI-CORRUPTION UNIT (ACU)
The ACU published legal documents and legal instruments regarding anti-
corruption.
The ACU has prepared, set up and managed the information system and
website of the anti-corruption unit.
The ACU has encouraged and motivated the general public to provide
corruption-related information.
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The ACU prepares and produces spots and videos and make announcement of
successful operations.
The ACU has collaborated with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
to incorporate anti-corruption-awareness education into the school curriculum.
The ACU evaluated and made incentive grading and provided awards for
education and corruption prevention work to ministries, institutions and all
levels of administrative authorities as well as the public.
The ACU will prepare exhibits, drawings, documents, and tools used by the
Anti-Corruption Unit in fighting corruption for the public to see.
The ACU has conducted studies identifying the priority areas so as to come up
with preventive and obstructive actions to prevent corruption opportunities in
ministries, institutions, the private sector and at all levels of local
administrative authorities.
The ACU gave warnings to any suspects who failed to carry out the law and
regulations in effect.
3) International Cooperation
The ACU closely cooperates with anti-corruption agents around the world,
especially with the South East Asia Parties against Corruption (SEA-PAC), in
combating corruption through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) of
the ASEAN in order to develop their own countries.
In cases where the assets and corruption proceeds are found and kept in
foreign states, the competent authority of the Kingdom of Cambodia shall take
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measures to claim those assets and proceeds and return them back to
Cambodia through the means of international cooperation. The Kingdom of
Cambodia shall cooperate with other requesting countries to return the
corruption proceeds which are kept in Cambodia. In relation to the mutual
legal assistance on corruption offences, the court of the Kingdom of Cambodia
may delegate power to a competent court of any foreign state and may also
obtain power from a court of any foreign state in order to compile all
necessary documents required.
IV. EXTRADITION
CHAPTER 3: TRANSIT
Article 595: Transit Request
B. Extradition under the Anti-Corruption Law (ACL)
Article 26: Special Privileges of Anti-corruption Unit
The diplomatic procedure precedes judicial procedure. The competent authorities of the
1
According to Article 50 (Extradition Provision) of the ACL, Extradition of cases related to Corruption
offences, provision of Chapter 2, Content 1, Part/ Section 9 of Penal Code Procedure shall be applicable.
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requesting State must approach Cambodia by diplomatic channels (Embassy and Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (MFA) by written request accompanied by supporting documents. Once the
request is received, the MFA will forward this request to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) which
will verify the authenticity of the request. Upon verification, the MOJ may request the
Prosecutor General of the Appellate Court to issue an arrest or detention order of the
interested person staying in the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The judicial procedure precedes the diplomatic procedure. The concerned court of Cambodia
must send a request with supporting documents to the MOJ, which will refer the dossier to
the MFA for diplomatic action. Once Cambodia’s request is received, the competent
authorities of the requested State will verify the authenticity of the request for further action.
During implementation of the MLA process, the Cambodian CA has received a request from
Vietnam and is still processing the request. In addition, we have also received requests from
South Korea.
• A report of the acts for which the wanted person is being prosecuted;
• The legal provisions applicable to such offence and the possible sentence; and
All documents shall be signed, officially sealed and enveloped. If they are not in the
Khmer, French or English languages, the request shall be accompanied by a certified
translation of the documents into one of the three languages.
VI. CONCLUSION
The procedure for international cooperation in the judicial sector in Cambodia is crucial,
using diplomatic channels by forwarding the request, firstly, to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and International Cooperation, and, secondly, to the Ministry of Justice, and, lastly, to
the Royal General-Prosecutor in the Appellate Court.
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