Draft anti-money laundering regulation prepared

THE government has prepared a draft anti-money laundering regulation which contains the procedures for listing and delisting terrorist organizations and persons. It plans to introduce two sets of regulations to implement the act—one fully focused on listing and delisting and another related to other issues. As per the proposed regulation on listing and delisting of terrorists, the Home Ministry will ask the cabinet to classify a domestic organization or individual as terrorist after an investigation. “In the case of international terrorist organizations, the Foreign Ministry will send a list of names to the Home Ministry for necessary procedures before listing them as terrorists,” said Tek Prasad Dhungana, joint secretary at the Law Ministry. In the case of foreign terrorists, the government will decided what to do after receiving a request from a foreign country or the United Nations. The proposed regulation has also talked about how to remove somebody from the terrorist list. “As it is not a conviction based list, the act has given those designated as terrorists or their accomplices a chance to prove their innocence and get delisted,” said Dhungana. Those who get involved in transactions with terrorists unknowingly can also get a clean chit and get delisted by providing adequate evidence. As the act says that all the properties of somebody accused of being a terrorist will be frozen, the regulation states that minimum living expenses will be provided to somebody put in the list. “Living expenses include food, clothes, family expenses including electricity and water bills and school and college fees of the children and necessary resources for legal defence,” said Dhungana. He added that such expenses would be met from their own assets. The regulation has also proposed monitoring the list and freezing and releasing bank accounts and properties regularly. The ministry has also been discussing another regulation to implement the Anti- Money Laundering Act. Similarly, the Law Ministry has prepared a draft regulation to implement the Mutual Legal Assistance Act. As per the proposed regulation, the Foreign Ministry will forward the request received from a foreign country for legal assistance to the Law Ministry which will provide help in this regard. “The government will help the foreign country by collecting necessary evidence and it will bear the costs involved, said Dhungana. He added that the government would not demand the service charge in advance. According to the proposed regulation, they can make payment later as per the costs. The draft regulation also states that a foreign country seeking legal assistance will have to send the request in the Nepali language. “Nepal can accept the request and the existing documents in English too, but they will have to pay for the translation service,” said Dhungana. The regulation has talked about keeping a roster of translators.