CAMBODIA’S INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN
COMBATING CORRUPTION
Mao Vitou *I. OVERVIEW
Identifying and mitigating criminal offences through a comprehensive approach acrossthe financial and criminal justice sectors are key components of credible national strategies
to address risks posed by serious and organized criminals, and they contribute to sustainable
development through prevention and mitigation of crimes and reduction of illicit financial
flows. Among other crimes, corruption is a phenomenon that affects virtually every country
in the world. Corruption not only causes serious damage to public resources but also
undermines democratic institutions, slows economic development and contributes to theinstability of governments. A sound anti-corruption strategy requires a strong legal sector
to help with the investigation, prosecution, conviction and disruption of serious andorganized criminal networks and effective international cooperation. Mutual legal
assistance in criminal matters (MLA) – a mechanism of international cooperation – is aprocess by which States seek and provide assistance in gathering evidence for use incriminal cases. Extradition is the formal process whereby a State requests the enforced
return of a person accused or convicted of a crime to stand trial or serve a sentence in therequesting State.
Within the framework of legal cooperation in the field of criminal justice, the Kingdomof Cambodia has signed bilateral and multilateral treaties with many countries, especiallytreaties related to extradition, transfer of prisoners and mutual legal assistance (MLA). In
the field of international legal assistance, which is an important form of international
cooperation, the Kingdom of Cambodia has signed a multilateral treaty within theframework of ASEAN – the ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal
Matters. The Kingdom of Cambodia has signed criminal law and bilateral treaties with four(4) countries, including the Republic of Korea, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, theRepublic of India and the Russian Federation. At the same time, the Kingdom of Cambodia
has received requests for legal assistance from many countries that do not have treaties oragreements with the Kingdom of Cambodia, but on the principle of reciprocity, theKingdom of Cambodia has agreed to provide assistance because it is important to cooperate
in the fight against crime, especially transnational crime as well as corruption. To ensurethat all Cambodian authorities cooperate to fight the crime of corruption, the Law on AntiCorruption sets forth some articles for Cambodia to request and receive legal assistancefrom foreign countries. Then, Cambodia enacted the Law on Mutual Legal Assistance inCriminal Matters (MLA Law) in June 2020, which not only establishes a clear internal
procedure but also complements the Code of Criminal Procedure to ensure theimplementation of the treaty, not only on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters but
also on establishing a legal basis that serves to strengthen and expand legal cooperation in
the criminal field with foreign countries based on the principles of respect for sovereignty
and mutual interests.
*

Legal Officer, Ministry of Justice, Cambodia.

- 51 -- 53 -II. CAMBODIA’S EXPERIENCE
Before 2020, there was no basic law setting forth a comprehensive basis for mutual
legal assistance in criminal matters. Cambodia has some separate laws which providespecific articles in making and providing legal assistance in particular fields. Relating tolegal assistance in corruption cases, the Law on Anti-Corruption, article 51, stipulates sometypes of assistance such as (1) obtaining testimony or answers in court, (2) service ofprocess (court documents etc.), (3) search, seizure and confiscation, (4) inspection ofobjects and places, (5) providing information and exhibits, (6) providing a copy of theoriginal log file or a certified copy of the original commercial and authentic documents, (7)presentation or providing of witnesses, experts or others, including detainees, who may
assist in the investigation or consent to participate in the proceedings. Besides domestic
law, MLA requests can be made based on the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), the United Nations Convention against
Corruption (UNCAC), the ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Mattersand bilateral treaties. Cambodia also received requests from foreign countries based on theprinciple of reciprocity.
III. CURRENT SITUATION IN CAMBODIAThe MLA Law of Cambodia (2020) defines mutual legal assistance in criminal matters
between the Kingdom of Cambodia and a Foreign State with respect to proceedings related
to criminal offences as well as freezing, seizure and confiscation of property for the purposeof strengthening and extending international cooperation. This law applies to legal
assistance in criminal matters to be provided to all requesting States even if they do nothave any agreement with the Kingdom of Cambodia and to those seeking legal assistancein criminal matters even if they do not have any agreement with the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The MLA Law sets forth some types of legal assistance in criminal matters including
in corruption cases such as (1) obtaining evidence or statements from witnesses, (2)searches and seizures, (3) providing evidence before a court, (4) providing information
controlled by the Kingdom of Cambodia, (5) serving court documents, (6) transferring adetained person for giving evidence, (7) identifying a location of a person, (8) identifying
the location of property, (9) taking measures on a request related to freezing, seizure orconfiscation of property and (10) obtaining evidence from financial institutions.
The MLA law also stipulates the process of receiving foreign requests to Cambodia as
follows:- 52 -- 54 -- 53 -- 55 -

In order to make MLA requests to foreign countries, the MLA law sets a process asfollows:
The Central Authority assess and determines the requirements for transmitting the request of
the relevant competent authorities of the Kingdom of Cambodia to a requested State incompliance with the law of the Kingdom of Cambodia (Art 5(4))
The Relevant Competent Authority (Court, Prosecution, the relevant competent Stateinstitution/Ministry) shall request Legal Assistance from a Foreign State through the CentralAuthority (Art 35), The Central Authority receives the request made by the relevant competentauthorities of the Kingdom of Cambodia (Art 5(2))
The Central Authority shall consider the relevance of the request by taking into accountregulations, detailed information, facts and relevant documents, and shall notify the competentauthority who has submitted the request of its decision. In case of necessity, the Central Authority
shall request a decision of the Royal Government prior to the implementing subsequent
procedures. (Art 35)
The relevant competent authority shallcomplete formalities of a request forassistance, which shall be determined by theCentral Authority. (Art 36)

If the Relevant Competent Authority does notcomplete the formalities of a request forassistance, which shall be determined by theCentral Authority:

In case of necessity, the Central Authority shall request additional
information to ensure that the request for assistance shall beaccepted by the requested State. (Art 36)

The Central Authority shall transmit the request to the requested State (Art 5(2))

The Central Authority shall follow up and communicate with the Central Authority of therequested State in order to expedite the implementation of the request of the Kingdom ofCambodia (Art 5(6))
The Central Authority receives the result of execution of the request from the requesting Stateand transmits it to the Relevant Competent Authority.

The Relevant Competent Authority that makes a request shall not, without prior consent
of the requested State, use or disclose information or evidence provided by the requested Statefor any purpose besides the point defined in the request. The Relevant Competent Authority who
makes a request shall take appropriate measures to safeguard the confidentiality of informationand evidence provided by the Requested State except for the evidence and information needed
for the purposes defined in the request. (Art 37)- 54 -- 56 -For foreign countries which seek to request legal assistance from Cambodia, a request
shall include the following information:
1. Name(s) of the authority/ies conducting a prosecutorial investigation, accusation,
judicial investigation, trial or implementation of the criminal proceeding related tothe request, such as detailed information of individual(s) capable of responding toenquiries related to the request;
2. A description of characteristics of the criminal case, including a summary of facts,
name(s) of the offence and penalties to be applied, accompanied by relevant legal
texts; and3. A description of the purpose of the request for assistance and types of assistancesought. The Central Authority may request the requesting State to give additionaland relevant information and documents if it deems the information and documents
included in the request is insufficient.
4. A request and documents related to the request shall be made in writing in Khmerand in English.
The Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Cambodia is the Central Authority. Presently,
the department of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition is the assistantdepartment to deal with the requests of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters of theMinistry of Justice. For the purpose of executing the MLA requests from foreign countries
effectively and expeditiously, the Ministry of Justice has developed internal guidelines toconsider the following key points:
A. Relation between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the requesting States:
Prioritization shall be considered on requests from states having bilateralagreements relating to mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with the Kingdomof Cambodia, states providing mutual legal assistances to the Kingdom ofCambodia based on reciprocity, states having extensive cooperation with theKingdom of Cambodia, states that are signatories to agreements related to mutual
legal assistance in criminal matters together with the Kingdom of Cambodia, suchas the ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, states
bordering the Kingdom of Cambodia, regional states together with the Kingdom ofCambodia, etc.
B. Type of Offence: Requests shall be prioritized based on the seriousness of theoffences in affecting public order, such as offences involving the abuse of womenor children, human trafficking offences, transnational offences, money-launderingoffences, drug offences.
C. Level of Complexity of the Request: Requests shall be prioritized based on thecomplexity of the request, that is, those that are simple and do not require a greatamount of time to understand.
D. Deadline for Implementation of Requests: Requests shall be prioritized if they set
necessary and appropriate implementation deadlines.

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Relating to requests for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, Cambodia rarely
receives requests for assistance in corruption cases in comparison to other types of legal
assistance cases. However, most corruption cases are related to identifying and obtaining
evidence of bank accounts, identifying property or obtaining testimony of persons orwitnesses involved in a corruption case.
IV. CHALLENGE
Despite the fact that Cambodia has a national law that provides a broad legal basis forinternational cooperation in Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, there are manyother tasks that need to be strengthened and developed. Cambodia is in the process of
forming a clear internal procedure in order to facilitate the expeditious execution of requests
for legal assistance. After adoption of the MLA law, the number of requests for mutual
legal assistance and the number of departmental staff have increased. However, the numberof staff is still not enough to deal with all requests expeditiously. Moreover, furthertrainings for new officials supporting the work process of the Central Authority are inprogress. At the same time, different languages and internal legal procedures are challenges
to the department, particularly complex requests, as an issue in executing requests which
require a long time and many agencies to complete. The Covid-19 pandemic has added
further challenges to the work process and execution time.

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