s 22 Production orders for criminal matters
22.—(1) Where a request is made by the appropriate authority of a prescribed foreign country that any particular thing or description of thing in Singapore be produced for the purposes of any criminal matter in that country, the Attorney‑General or a person duly appointed by the Attorney‑General may apply to the court for an order under subsection (3). (2) An application for an order under subsection (3) in relation to any thing in the possession of a financial institution or VCC must be made only to the General Division of the High Court.[44/2018; 40/2019] (3) If, on such an application, the court is satisfied that the conditions in subsection (4) are fulfilled, it may make an order that the person who appears to the court to be in possession of the thing to which the application relates must —(a) produce the thing to an authorised officer for the authorised officer to take away; or (b) give an authorised officer access to the thing, within 7 days of the date of the order or any other period that the court considers appropriate. (4) The conditions mentioned in subsection (3) are —(a) that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that a specified person has carried on or benefited from a foreign offence; (b) that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the thing to which the application relates —(i) is likely to be of substantial value (whether by itself or together with another thing) to the criminal matter in respect of which the application was made; and (ii) does not consist of or include items subject to legal privilege; and (c) that the court is satisfied that it is not contrary to the public interest for the thing to be produced or that access to it be given. (5) The proceedings in which the order mentioned in subsection (3) is made are to be conducted in the absence of the person to whom the criminal proceedings in the foreign country relates or of the person’s legal representative (if any), unless the court orders otherwise.[Act 42 of 2024 wef 28/03/2025] (6) A person who is required by an order under this section to produce or make available any thing for the purposes of any criminal proceedings in a foreign country must not be required to produce any thing that the person could not be compelled to produce in the proceedings in that country. (7) A duly certified foreign law immunity certificate is admissible in proceedings under this section as prima facie evidence of the matters stated in the certificate. (8) If the court hears oral arguments for any proceedings under subsection (3), those proceedings must be heard in private.[Act 25 of 2021 wef 01/04/2022] [Act 42 of 2024 wef 28/03/2025]