Section 56 Authorisation of assistance

(1) Authorisation to render mutual assistance may only be given if the foreign judgment has been declared enforceable.

(2) The decision authorising mutual assistance must be notified to the Federal Central Criminal Register. Section 55 (3) sentences 2 to 4 applies accordingly.

(3) Where authorisation is given to enforce a financial penalty or a sentence of imprisonment, the offence may no longer be prosecuted under German law.

(4) Authorisation to enforce an order for confiscation is equal to a final order and decision within the meaning of sections 73 and 74 of the Criminal Code. Section 433 of the Code of Criminal Procedure applies accordingly.

Section 74 Federal jurisdiction

(1) It is for the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, in consultation with the Federal Foreign Office and other federal ministries whose remit is affected by the mutual assistance, to give a decision on foreign requests for mutual assistance and to send requests for mutual assistance to foreign states. Where an authority subordinate to another federal ministry is responsible for rendering the assistance, that federal ministry takes the place of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. The federal ministries with jurisdiction under sentences 1 and 2 may delegate the exercise of their powers to subordinate federal authorities. It is for the Federal Office of Justice to give decisions on requests made in accordance with Part 9 Division 2 Subdivisions 2 and 3.

(2) The Federal Government may, by way of agreement, delegate to the Land governments the exercise of its power to give decisions on foreign requests for mutual assistance and to send requests for mutual assistance to foreign states. The Land governments are entitled to transfer that power to other bodies.

(3) The powers of the Federal Criminal Police Office in respect of the transmission of data, issuing of alerts and establishing of a person’s identity on the basis of a foreign request are governed by section 27 (1) sentence 1 no. 2 and section 33 (1) to (4) of the Federal Criminal Police Office Act (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz).

(4) ‛Requests’ within the meaning of subsections (1) and (2) include those for data transmission in accordance with sections 61a und 92c. Data transmission in accordance with section 61a is ruled out from the possibility set out in subsection (2), unless provision is made therefor in agreements under international law as referred to in section 1 (3).


Section 74a
International criminal courts, intergovernmental and supranational institutions

Section 74 applies accordingly to decisions on requests by an international criminal court and by other intergovernmental and supranational institutions for other types of mutual assistance in criminal matters, unless special-law rules make exhaustive provision in that regard.

Part 5 Additional Mutual Assistance

§ 60 Presence During Mutual Assistance Activities
(relating to Article 99 para. 1 of the Rome Statute)

Members of the Court and authorized representatives thereof, as well as other persons named in a request by the Court, shall, upon request, be allowed to be present during the undertaking of domestic mutual assistance activities; they may raise questions or propose measures. Members of the Court may take notes as well as make sound, photo, or video recordings of the mutual assistance activities. As long as the affected parties agree, sound, photo, and video recordings are allowed even when the prerequisites of the Criminal Procedure Code therefore are not met. Recordings that are made in accordance with sentence 3 shall not be used in a German criminal proceeding.

Section 154b
Non-prosecution in case of extradition and expulsion

(1) The preferment of public charges may be dispensed with if the accused is extradited to a foreign government on account of the offence.

(2) The same applies if the accused is to be extradited to a foreign government or transferred to an international criminal court of justice on account of another offence and the penalty or the measure of reform and prevention which may result from the domestic prosecution is negligible in comparison to the penalty or measure of reform and prevention which has been imposed on him or her with binding effect abroad or which is expected to be imposed abroad.