Enforcement of forfeiture orders

Papua New Guinea

Criminal Code Act 1974

SCHEDULE 1 – THE CRIMINAL CODE.

PART IX. – MISCELLANEOUS.

623A. RESTITUTION OF PROPERTY.

(1) When a person is prosecuted, on the complaint of the owner of property or any person on whom the right to property has devolved by operation of law, on a charge or an indictable offence of which the unlawful acquisition of the property by him is an element, and is convicted of the offence on indictment, the court may order the property to be restored to the owner.

(2) An order made under Subsection (1) has the effect of a judgement, and is binding on the offender and any person claiming through him as determining the ownership of the property, but as regards any other person has the effect only of changing the possession of the property, and does not affect any right of property or right of action.

(3) In any case referred to in Subsection (1), the court before which the offender is convicted may order that any personal property which is found in his possession, and which appears to the court to have been derived, directly or indirectly, from such unlawful acquisition of property, shall be delivered to any person who appears to the court to be entitled to the property so unlawfully acquired.

(4) This section does not apply to a valuable security, if it appears that the security has been paid or discharged in good faith by some person liable to the payment of it, or, being a negotiable instrument, has been taken or received by transfer or delivery in good faith by some person for a valuable consideration without any notice and without any reasonable cause to suspect that the same had been so unlawfully acquired.

Rome Statute

Article 109 Enforcement of fines and forfeiture measures

1. States Parties shall give effect to fines or forfeitures ordered by the Court under Part 7, without prejudice to the rights of bona fide third parties, and in accordance with the procedure of their national law.

2. If a State Party is unable to give effect to an order for forfeiture, it shall take measures to recover the value of the proceeds, property or assets ordered by the Court to be forfeited, without prejudice to the rights of bona fide third parties.

3. Property, or the proceeds of the sale of real property or, where appropriate, the sale of other property, which is obtained by a State Party as a result of its enforcement of a judgement of the Court shall be transferred to the Court.