Expediency Council begins session on reviewing ‘Palermo’ bill

TEHRAN (defapress) – The Expediency Council is holding a session Saturday to review the bill on the country’s accession to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, known as Palermo Convention in Iran.

News ID: 75636

Date: 16 February 2019 - 11:48

Today’s session follows the one held on January 26, with the attendance of a number of Guardian Council members, foreign minister and economy minister, VP for legal affairs, governor of the Central Bank, and chairmen of the Parliament’s judicial and security committees.

The previous session concluded without a vote by the Council’s members.

The Palermo bill had been once examined in the Guardian Council and then in the high supervisory board of the Expediency Council, where the bodies found some flaws with it and referred it back to the Parliament. However, the Parliament insisted on its endorsement and returned the bill to the Expediency Council for the final verdict.

Together with the bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT), Palermo is a controversial FATF-related bill that Iran has been requested to endorse in order to join the anti-money laundering watchdog and get off the body’s blacklist.

The Palermo bill needs at least two third of the votes today to be endorsed by the Expediency Council.

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