Sami Hamdan AL-Rawashdeh
This study deals with defining the crime of money laundering and its elements in accordance with the new Qatari Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act No. (20) of 2019. It revealed that the Qatari lawmaker adopted an expanded definition of the crime of money laundering, as it listed many forms of the acts that constitute the material element of this crime. The lawmaker also stipulated that the perpetrator knows with certainty that the money subject to laundering emanates from illegal sources. The Qatari lawmaker did not specify the predicate offense exclusively. The predicate crime includes every act that constitutes a felony or misdemeanor according to Qatari law, from which money is generated, whether committed inside or outside the State of Qatar. Upon proving that the money is the proceeds of a crime, it is not required that the person has been convicted of committing the predicate offense. Punishing the persons who commit the predicate offense does not prevent them from being punished for the crime of money laundering. If the criminal lawsuit has been filed in relation to the predicate offense, then the court hearing the money laundering lawsuit must not decide upon until a final judgment is issued in the predicate offense, because the rule is that the judgment that settles a preliminary issue has authority before the criminal court even if the unity of litigants is not available, in accordance with Article 168 of the Qatari Criminal Procedure Law.