Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act Act No. 4/2013 (4) The terms “benefit recovery order”, “financial institution”, “monitoring order”, “production order” and “property-tracking document”, have the meanings assigned by the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act, 2013”; (b) by the insertion of the following section after section 2— “2A Purpose of Act and powers and responsibilities of Attorney-General (1) The purpose of this Act is to enable the Attorney-General and appropriate authorities to provide the widest possible range of cooperation to each other for purposes of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, including (without derogating from the generality of the foregoing) mutual legal assistance in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings related to money laundering and financing of terrorism and to associated predicate offences. (2) This Act shall be construed in such manner as best ensures the attainment of its purpose referred to in subsection (1). (3) The Attorney-General has the responsibility and power to make and receive requests for assistance in any criminal matter in accordance with this Act, and in doing shall ensure the timeous, expeditious and proper processing of the same, for which purpose the Attorney-General may avail himself or herself of the services of the International Criminal Police Organization (commonly called “Interpol”).”; (c) in section 3 (“Application of Act”), by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (3) — “(4) The requirement of dual criminality upon which the principle of mutual assistance in criminal matters is based shall be deemed to be fulfilled in respect of any offence for which assistance is sought if the conduct underlying the offence is a criminal offence under the laws of Zimbabwe and the foreign country concerned, irrespective of whether the laws of the requesting foreign country place the offence within the same class of offences as Zimbabwe or denominate the offence by the same terminology as in Zimbabwe.”; (d) in section 4 (“Aspects of mutual assistance”), by the insertion of the following paragraphs after paragraph (j) — “(k) identifying or tracing the proceeds of crime, funds or property or instrumentalities or other things for evidentiary or confiscation purposes; (l) the examination of objects and sites; (m) any other form of mutual legal assistance not contrary to the law of Zimbabwe.”; (e) in section 6 (“Refusal of assistance”), by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (3) — “(3) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c), money laundering and financing of terrorism shall not be regarded as political offences, or offences connected with a political offence, or offences inspired by political motives. (4) Secrecy or confidentiality provisions binding banks and other financial institutions cannot be invoked as a ground for refusal to comply with a request by a foreign country for assistance under this Act, as long as the other conditions for granting such request under the this Act are fulfilled. (5) Assistance shall not be refused on the sole ground that the offence is also considered to involve fiscal matters. (6) However, the prior invocation by a foreign country requesting assistance under this Act of the grounds mentioned under subsections (4) and (5) to refuse assistance to Zimbabwe under this Act shall constitute grounds for the Attorney- - 69 -