International Best Practice in Mutual Legal Assistance Workshop held

Australia and Sri Lanka have continued to build on their partnership to combat transnational crime by holding a three day workshop focused on mutual legal assistance from May 15 to 17 in Colombo.

Mutual legal assistance is a key tool in fighting transnational criminal activity, allowing police, prosecutors and courts in different nations to access and share critical information, evidence and witnesses to secure convictions.

Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem and Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Robyn Mudie, opened the workshop on May 15, which was co-hosted by Sri Lanka and Australia, as part of both countries’ ongoing commitment to combat people smuggling and other transnational criminal activities.

The Mutual Legal Assistance workshop builds on a busy programme of bilateral law enforcement collaboration on this theme and provided an important forum in which to share vital information and increase understanding between authorities in Sri Lanka and Australia.

Three officers from Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department were joined at the workshop by more than 25 Sri Lankan officials from government agencies including the Justice Ministry, External Affairs Ministry, Defence Ministry, the Attorney General’s Department, the Sri Lanka Police, Department of Immigration and Emigration, the Legal Draftsman’s Department and the Judiciary.