Related videos:
The People's Supreme Court (TSP) of Cuba published three new legal provisions on Monday, which are mandatory for all courts in the country, related to the seizure of assets and international criminal cooperation, as reported by the judicial body itself on its official site.
The Opinions 477 and 478 were published in the Official Gazette No. 38, while Instruction 290/26 appeared in the Extraordinary Official Gazette No. 58, both dated May 4, 2026. The three documents were adopted during an extraordinary session of the TSP Government Council held on April 28, under the presidency of Oscar Manuel Silvera Martínez, who took office in February 2026 replacing Rubén Remigio Ferro.
Ruling 477: distribution of seized assets in international cooperation
The Opinion 477 responds to a query from the Attorney General of the Republic regarding whether the distribution of seized assets is included in the acts of international criminal assistance regulated by the Criminal Procedure Law.
The TSP established that Article 742.1 of the Law 143 "On Criminal Procedure" "addresses the distribution or sharing of seized assets as an act of international legal assistance," thereby filling a legal void that the regulation did not expressly cover.
The ruling defines that figure as "the act by which one State transfers or distributes to another State, in whole or in part, the seized goods or their proceeds, in consideration of its participation in the investigation or the ownership of the affected interest."
The provision is based on four UN conventions —against the trafficking of narcotic drugs (1988), for the suppression of the financing of terrorism (1999), against transnational organized crime (2000), and against corruption (2003)— as well as Recommendation 38 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Opinion 478: confiscation of equivalent assets
The Statement 478 establishes that when direct seizure of the effects or profits from the crime is not possible, the accessory penalty of confiscation may be applied to other assets of the accused to cover the equivalent value of the illicit benefit obtained.
The ruling itself acknowledges that "in many cases, the effects or profits directly derived from the crime cannot be located or seized, due to their concealment, transformation, transfer, or integration into the offender's assets."
This figure, internationally known as equivalent value forfeiture, reinforces the asset seizure of crimes and aligns with FATF standards.
Instruction 290/26: appraisal of assets by depositary entities
Instruction 290/26 directs the depositary entities that receive movable goods subject to preventive seizure, confiscation, or forfeiture to conduct an appraisal in the national currency and submit it to the institution responsible for the process or to the criminal investigation authority.
These provisions are part of the process of updating the Cuban judicial system that began with the 2019 Constitution and the subsequent enactment of Law 140 "On the Courts of Justice" and Law 143 "On Criminal Procedure," both from October 2021.
The appointment of Silvera Martínez was proposed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel and approved by the National Assembly, and the new rulings represent one of the first significant regulatory actions of the court under its new leadership.
In November 2024, Cuba completed its Mutual Evaluation Report of the IV Round of GAFILAT —being the first country evaluated under the new methodology of the organization— whose findings identified asset recovery as the second regional priority and highlighted the low volume of seizures and gaps in the management of confiscated assets as the main deficiencies in this area.
Filed under: