A legal agreement for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between the Macau SAR and Mongolia has been officially in force since October 1 of this year.

The agreement was officially signed on July 24, 2019; however the conditions and internal formalities needed for its promulgation were only now met.

Assistance under the agreement covers identifying and locating persons; effecting service of documents; obtaining evidence, articles and documents; executing searches and seizures; and effecting the temporary transfer of persons in custody; tracing, restraining and confiscating instrumentalities and proceeds of crime; providing judicial or official records; delivering property and any other forms of assistance not prohibited by the law of the requesting party.

The central authority in the Macau SAR given the power of effect legal requests will be the Public Prosecutions Office, with the Mongolian entity being the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs.

The agreement does not cover the surrender of fugitive offenders, the transfer of persons in custody to serve sentences or the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters since the matters are already covered by an extradition agreement of sentenced persons between Macau and Mongolia enforced in 2018.