Law enforcement heads from 46 Islamic states gathered in Baku for the Third High-Level Meeting of the Heads of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Agencies of Member States of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address cross-border financial crime, artificial intelligence, and international asset recovery.
The summit centered on implementing the Makkah al-Mukarramah Convention, which the OIC stated is the first multilateral anti-corruption law enforcement agreement tailored for Islamic Cooperation member states, establishing a unified legal foundation for tracking illicit financial flows across borders.
Abd Halim Bin Aman, Chief Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, detailed Malaysia's multi-year effort to trace and repatriate stolen funds related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case. Bin Aman revealed that Malaysia managed to bring back approximately 33 billion Malaysian ringgit worth of loss, representing 75% to 80% of funds from outside countries.
Regarding the 1MDB scandal, the US Justice Department's website reported that between 2009 and 2015, over $4.5 billion (approximately €4 billion) in funds belonging to 1MDB were misappropriated through a criminal scheme, which involved laundering money through major financial institutions worldwide, including in the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, and Luxembourg. The Justice Department also stated it repatriated an additional $156 million (approximately €139 million) in misappropriated 1MDB funds, bringing the total returned funds to approximately $1.4 billion (approximately €1.2 billion).
Bin Aman attributed delays in such international matters to bureaucracy, stating that the summit provides a necessary platform to share legislation and best practices to speed up investigations irrespective of legal backgrounds.
Ivica Bošnjak, Deputy Minister of Security for Bosnia and Herzegovina, noted the structural complexity facing his country, where national authorities must coordinate "16 police agencies and a whole series of other law enforcement agencies" operating across the security sector. Bošnjak added that "much still needs to be done to refine a couple of more crucial laws" and operational strategies to tackle cross-border financial crime effectively.
Tugay Rahimli, Special Assistant to the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan, stated that the event brought together more than 250 participants from 46 member and service states as well as eight international organisations. Rahimli noted that the main objective is to "facilitate and foster international cooperation among member states, facilitate exchange of information and best practices, as well as to enhance the joint efforts to recover the assets obtained through crime."
Rahimli also mentioned that the Makkah al-Mukarramah Convention was adopted in 2022 in Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and operates under a framework incorporating 57 nations, aiming to bypass lengthy diplomatic channels to allow law enforcement agencies to share intelligence quickly, conduct joint investigations, and trace, freeze, and return stolen state funds to their countries of origin.
