In Warsaw, Indonesia And Poland Finalize The MLA Agreement

Dok Ditjen AHU

WARSAWA - Indonesia and Poland have successfully finalized the Bilateral Agreement in the form of Balik Assistance in the issue of Criminal Assistance in Criminal Matters or MLAs as a joint commitment to building cross-border law enforcement between the two countries.

The finalization of the Indonesia-Poland MLA agreement was carried out at the Polish Ministry of Justice, June 12, 2024. The Indonesian Government delegation led by the Director General of General Legal Administration (Dirjen AHU) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Cahyo R Muzhar and the Polish Government was led by Deputy Minister of Justice, Krzysztof Smiszek.

"MLA is an international cooperation mechanism that allows a country to ask for help from other countries to obtain evidence in order to support the process of investigation, prosecution, and examination at court hearings in accordance with the provisions of the legislation," said Cahyo R Muzhar, Thursday, June 20.

Cahyo, who was appointed as the leader of the Indonesian Delegation, said that the two countries have a strong role in each region with Poland in Central Europe while Indonesia also has an important role in ASEAN. Moreover, by 2025 Poland will play a very strategic role as the European Union Presidency.

" Geoeconomically, the strategic geographical location of Poland in the heart of Europe is supported by a large population, adequate infrastructure level, Poland is a strategic entry point for the development of Indonesia's exports to the Central and Eastern European regions," he said.

He revealed that the draft MLA agreement consists of 28 articles, such as requests for mutual assistance in criminal matters in the form of identification / searching for people (locating persons), taking witness statements, submitting letters or court documents, carrying out searches and confiscation and even confiscation of assets resulting from criminal acts.

In addition, said Cahyo, the finalization of this agreement has made a strategic contribution in strengthening the profile of bilateral relations between the two countries that have been closely established today. Based on a snapshot of Indonesia Poland's bilateral relations from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are at least 3 (three) strategic values of bilateral relations between Indonesia and Poland.

First, from the people to people contact aspect where there are 1,394 Indonesian citizens (WNI) in Poland consisting of 191 students, 670 formal migrant workers and 288 professional migrant workers who work in several important sectors in Poland.

"Even to improve people to people contact, since 1987, the Government has provided Darmasiswa scholarship programs to around 448 Polish students to study in Indonesia in the field of Indonesian Language and Cultural Art studies at several universities in Indonesia for a maximum period of one year. There is an Indonesian-Poland Friendship Association that aims to provide a forum for Indonesian cultural lovers in Poland and the fundraising of Darmasis alumni, which currently number 250 people, spread throughout Poland," he explained.

Second, from the trade and investment aspect, Poland is one of Indonesia's important partners in the Central European region. Cooperation between the two countries has grown in all fields, especially in the sector's crucial investment, including mining, energy and tourism with a value of USD 1.456 million. Over the past five years (2017-2021), Indonesia-Pilin trade figures experienced an increase of 11.46% with the largest increase occurring in 2021.

Finally, from the tourism aspect. According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), there was an increase in the number of Polish tourist visits to Indonesia after the international travel restriction era during the Covid 19, namely 752 visits in 2021, 18.401 visits in 2022 and a significant increase in the number of 41,998 visits in 2023.

"From the aspect of cooperation in law enforcement, Poland is the first member state of the European Union to have an MLA agreement with Indonesia. This is important as an entry point for Indonesia to cooperate in law enforcement with other EU member countries. MLA's request from Poland since 2013 has reached 54 requests. Of the MLA's requests, most of them are related to criminal acts of fraud and cyber. The high level of cyber crime in Poland, mostly from Bulgaria. As is known, Bulgaria is one of the countries of origin of cyber crime, "explained Cahyo.

To note, Indonesia and Poland have been in bilateral MLA cooperation since 2018, and have only reached an agreement in June 2024. This MLA agreement will be signed by the two ministers of law from the two countries which will be carried out at the end of 2024.