Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 17 / Trend N. Ismayilova /
MONEYVAL CE Committee of Experts appreciates legislative reforms implemented in Azerbaijan in 2008-2009, executive secretary of the CE Expert Group on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (Moneyval) John Ringguth, said in Baku. He participates in the the first regional conference on "Combating legalization (laundering) of money or other property acquired by criminal means and financing of terrorism".
He said that the law "Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing", adopted in Azerbaijan in February 2009, reflected all of the recommendations of MONEYVAL.
"Today, Azerbaijan has a preventive law fully meeting international standards. Now it is important to monitor its effective implementation. In 2009, Azerbaijan showed significant progress. We hope that this trend will continue in the future, " he said.
He said that after the the law is adopted, each country strives for its effective implementation, so the Financial Monitoring Service under the Azerbaijani Central Bank must constantly improve the process of obtaining and processing information.
"If the violations of the criminal law are revealed, it is necessary to bring the defendant to criminal liability", he said.
On Feb. 24, 2009 Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev signed the bill, adopted by the parliament on Feb. 10, on countering the legalization of criminally obtained money and property and the financing of terrorism and issued a decree on measures to implement it.
The Regulations on the Financial Monitoring Service under the Central Bank, which is a key point in implementing the law "Combating money laundering of criminally obtained money and finance terrorism" were approved by the Azerbaijani President's decree on July 16, 2009.