Symposium on Mutual Legal Assistance |12 March 2022

CJ Govinden addressing participants at the symposium (Photos: Louis Toussaint)

A symposium on Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) was conducted at the Palais de Justice on Thursday afternoon in the presence of Chief Justice Ronny Govinden, President of the Court of Appeal Justice Anthony Fernando, Judges of the Supreme Court, Master of the Supreme court Natasha Burian, lawyers and prosecutors.

In his address Chief Justice Govinden described MLA as a tool used by countries to assist each other in the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences or proceedings that extends beyond a country’s national borders. It is used to obtain assistance that cannot be obtained via law enforcement corporation.

Chief Justice Govinden stated that the MLA Act 1995 has spent its time and following reviews by international bodies and local consultants the government has proposed a new Bill to address the shortcoming of the existing law.

The symposium had various speakers such as the Master of the Supreme Court, Natasha Burian, the chief executive of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Seychelles (ACCS), May de Silva, the Senior Judge from England and Wales via video conference and Lisa Thompson from the Attorney General’s office who elaborated on the MLA in their respective organisations or departments.

Many ‘Mutual Legal Assistance’ treaties also include provision for service of legal documents and for freezing and recovery of assets. Most of these treaties do not cover arrests extradition, transfer of criminal proceedings or repatriation of prisoners.

Ms Thompson stated that the law was enacted in 1995 and many changes have been made since. One of these changes for example is video links in legal proceedings and interception of parcels.

The CEO of ACCS added that if the new law is enforced it will be easier to access information through another jurisdiction especially in light of when they are making requests.

Marla Simeon