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Ammon News - The Judicial Council (JC) and the Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have prepared guidelines to deal with requests for legal aid in criminal matters, according to a judicial source.

The manual comes within the framework of international cooperation that aims to organize the mechanism to address requests sent to Jordan from all countries across the world, aiming to strengthen the Kingdom's role in the international cooperation network within criminal justice, the official said.

The procedure also seeks to increase Jordan's effectiveness in confronting organized cross-border crime that poses "greater danger on humanity, in light of the huge technological developments that the world is witnessing and the spread of the crime's impacts outside its scene," the source noted.

On the guidelines' impact, procedures have developed in relation to receiving assistance requests from the competent judicial authorities in the sender country to the Ministry of Justice, as a central authority through diplomatic channels, the source pointed.

Priority will be given to assistance requests related to money laundering, terrorist funding and corruption-related crimes, which will enhance Jordan's role in the international judicial cooperation in criminal matters, according to the source.

Meanwhile, the source said Jordan's judicial authority deals with assistance requests based on the existence of a bilateral, regional or international agreements, with the beneficiary state.

In the event none of the aforementioned agreements exists, the request is processed in accordance with the rules of "international courtesy" and the principle of reciprocity, the source noted.

The guidelines, which were published on both the websites of the Judicial Council and the Ministry of Justice, provides access to their full content both in Arabic and English.