NCJ Number
200692
Journal
Journal of Financial Crime Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2003 Pages: 370-377
Date Published
April 2003
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper examines Sri Lanka's laws that relate to the criminal and civil forfeiture of criminal proceeds and assesses their effectiveness in deterring crime.
Abstract
The Sri Lankan Code of Criminal procedure provides that a police officer who arrests a suspected criminal may detain until the discharge or acquittal of such suspect "such articles which there is reason to believe were the instruments or the fruits or other evidence of the crime." The Code further provides that the seizure should be immediately reported to a magistrate, who shall "make such order as he thinks fit respecting the delivery of such property to the person entitled to the possession thereof." Although the Code of Criminal procedure empowers a court to deprive the accused of the use and enjoyment of any property that has been derived from a crime, there is no provision in the Code that authorizes depriving an accused generally of the profits of his/her crime; e.g., a person who helped a terrorist organization to commit a crime against humanity for financial gain may not have to forfeit the profits of his crime. Sri Lanka has, however, incorporated forfeiture provisions into the Bribery Act and the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, which are intended to deal with the corruption of public officials through bribery. The legislation ensures that any property bought out of the proceeds of a bribe can be traced and recovered notwithstanding that the property may be owned by a spouse or child of the offender or even a third party. In the civil arena, however, Sri Lanka lacks the laws necessary to mount an effective attack on money laundering. The Sri Lankan draft Money Laundering bill, which has been debated since 1995, has not yet been finalized by the Legal Draftsman. The draft bill seeks to make money laundering an offense. It is likely that the draft bill, when ultimately enacted by Parliament, will be able to identify and confiscate the profits of criminal activity. 87 references