Part VI of the Cybercrime Code Act 2016 is the shortest Part in the Act. It contains two sections of one sentence each.
Sections 46 and 47
For the purposes of facilitating international co-operation, the provisions of the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2005 applies.
For the purposes of facilitating matters relating to extradition, the provisions of the Extradition Act 2005 applies.
The Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2005 and the Extradition Act 2005 are not currently available on PacLII, so no links are given here.
Part VI creates no new machinery. It applies two existing statutes to cybercrime matters, so that requests for evidence from abroad, requests received from other countries, and the surrender of persons for trial proceed under the established framework rather than under bespoke provisions.
The advantage is coherence: Papua New Guinea deals with cybercrime co-operation the way it deals with co-operation in any other criminal matter. The limitation is that the Act supplies nothing to address what makes cybercrime different.
Why cross-border co-operation is central
In a typical case:
- The offender may be overseas;
- The platform or service used may be operated from another country;
- The data — account records, message content, logs — may be stored on servers abroad;
- The money, in a fraud or extortion case, may move through several jurisdictions;
- Only the victim is in Papua New Guinea.
The Part IV powers operate domestically. A production order under section 35 or an interception order under section 39 can be directed at a provider whose service is available in the country, but enforcing it against an entity with no local presence is another matter. That is where Part VI does its work.
The offshore data problem
Section 33(b). In executing a warrant, police may access data not held at the private place — which reaches a cloud account signed in on a seized device. Whether that extends to data physically stored abroad is not addressed by the Act, and the general principle limiting the extraterritorial reach of domestic warrants suggests caution.
Section 46. A formal mutual assistance request to the country where the data is held. This is the orthodox route and it is legally sound — but it is slow, and communications data often has a retention life measured in weeks.
That timing mismatch is the practical difficulty. It is why expedited preservation under section 36 matters so much: a preservation step taken quickly keeps the material alive while the slower formal process runs.
Section 47 — extradition
Extradition operates both ways: Papua New Guinea may seek the surrender of a person to face a cybercrime charge here, and may receive requests from other countries.
The conditions come from the Extradition Act 2005 and any applicable treaty or arrangement. In general they include:
- Dual criminality — the conduct must be an offence in both countries. The breadth of the PNG offences means some conduct criminal here may not be criminal elsewhere, particularly section 23(4) and section 21;
- A minimum seriousness threshold, which most cybercrime offences comfortably meet given the penalties;
- The usual exceptions — political offences, and grounds relating to the treatment the person would face.
What Part VI does not contain
| Feature | Position under the Act |
|---|---|
| 24/7 point of contact for urgent foreign requests | Not provided for |
| Expedited preservation on foreign request | Section 36 operates domestically; no express foreign-request route |
| Direct co-operation between providers and foreign authorities | Not addressed |
| Rules on data stored abroad | Not addressed |
| Spontaneous information sharing | Not addressed |
Those matters would fall to be addressed, if at all, under the rules and regulations power in sections 49 and 50, or by the general framework of the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2005.
For victims and businesses
- Report locally and quickly. A domestic preservation notice can be issued the same day; a mutual assistance request cannot.
- Preserve your own evidence. What you hold does not depend on any foreign process.
- Provide the technical detail. Account names, IP addresses, timestamps with time zones, transaction references — these are what a foreign provider or authority needs to act on.
- Expect delay. Formal co-operation takes months, not days.
See also what to do if you are a victim of cybercrime.
Sources
- Cybercrime Code Act 2016 — ss 33, 35, 36, 39, 46, 47, 49, 50
- Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2005; Extradition Act 2005
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Cybercrime Code Act 2016 and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.