The United Nations (International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals) Order 2018

Enforcement of orders for the freezing of assets or preservation or restitution of property

25.—(1) Where the Secretary of State receives from the Mechanism—

(a) an order for the adoption of provisional measures to freeze the assets of the accused;

(b) an order for provisional measures for the preservation and protection of property or the proceeds of property; or

(c) an order for the restitution of property or the proceeds of property,

the Secretary of State must append to it a direction that it be registered for enforcement in the United Kingdom.

(2) The Secretary of State must—

(a) appoint a person (“P”) to act on behalf of the Mechanism for the purposes of enforcing the order; and

(b) give such directions to P as appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary.

(3) If the Secretary of State so directs, then P must apply to a court for the registration of the order for enforcement.

(4) On the application of P the court must register the order as a precondition of enforcement but—

(a) an order must not be registered unless the court is satisfied that the order is in force and not subject to appeal; and

(b) if the order has been partly complied with, the court must register the order for enforcement only so far as it has not been complied with.

(5) The registration of the order under this article must be cancelled if the order is satisfied by other means.

(6) A court may on the application of the appointed person in respect of an order mentioned in paragraph (1)(b) or (c) vest in that person any property to which the order relates, and P must—

(a) dispose of such property in accordance with the directions of the Secretary of State, and

(b) transmit any proceeds to the Secretary of State, who must transmit the proceeds to the Mechanism.

(7) The court must not exercise its powers of enforcement in relation to any property unless it is satisfied—

(a) that a reasonable opportunity has been given for persons holding any interest in the property to make representations to the court; and

(b) that the exercise of the powers will not prejudice the rights of bona fide third parties.

(8) For the purposes of enforcement of an order registered under this article—

(a) the order has the same force and effect;

(b) the court has in relation to its enforcement the same powers; and

(c) proceedings for or with respect to its enforcement may be taken,

as if the court had originally made the order.

(9) Where the Mechanism makes an order (a “suspending order”) that enforcement of a registered order be suspended, the suspending order must, on its production to the court, be registered immediately; and—

(a) the suspending order has effect as if it had been an order made by the court which stayed or sisted the execution of the original registered order for the same period and on the same conditions as are stated in the suspending order; and

(b) while the suspending order remains in force, no steps are to be taken to enforce the original registered order.

(10) The reasonable costs and expenses of and incidental to the registration and enforcement of an order under this article (including any variation or cancellation of the registration) are to be recoverable as if they were sums recoverable under the order.

(11) In this article and in article 26 “the court” means—

(a) in England and Wales, the High Court;

(b) in Scotland, the Court of Session; and

(c) in Northern Ireland, the High Court.

(12) Where the Secretary of State receives an order described in paragraph (1) which relates to assets or property in Scotland, the Secretary of State must transmit the order to the Scottish Ministers, and in such circumstances the remainder of this article applies as if references to “the Secretary of State” were to “the Scottish Ministers”.