Criminalising the
financing of terrorism
Taiwan was the only country considered in this
report that has not, as yet, criminalised the financing
of terrorism. The remaining eight countries had
enacted terrorism financing legislation. Australia
criminalised financing individual terrorists, terrorist
organisations and terrorist acts through providing
funds and other resources. The United States and
United Kingdom made funding terrorist groups
or acts criminal offences. Singapore specifically
mentioned individual terrorists and acts, while others
such as Hong Kong focused entirely on terrorist acts
and purposes.
The counter-terrorism financing offences across
the countries within the scope of this report, with
the notable exception of Taiwan, were more uniform
than those for criminalising money laundering. This
is probably, in part, because the FATF-GAFI’s Special
Recommendation II does not encompass additional
issues such as defining or recommending
approaches to predicate offences. Special
Recommendation II states ‘[e]ach country should
criminalise the financing of terrorism, terrorist acts
and terrorist organisations’ (FATF-GAFI 2004: 2).
Despite a greater degree of uniformity of terrorism
financing offences across the eight countries,
Australia and Germany exemplified quite different
approaches beyond creating criminal offences for
providing support to terrorism. Australia’s terrorism
financing offences are tied to predetermined lists
of terrorist organisations, whereas Germany’s
legislation requires prosecutors to demonstrate
that the groups in question, in each accusation
of providing support to terrorism, are terrorist
organisations.