In April 2021, the IIJ convened the second iteration of the IIJ Core Course: Using Information Derived from Intelligence to Generate Evidence for Terrorism Investigations and Prosecutions, with support from the U.S. Department of State. The workshop, delivered in an online format due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions, included both a sectoral and regional focus, bringing together 34 judges, prosecutors and investigators from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali and Niger.
The main objectives of this workshop were to:
- deepen criminal justice sector practitioners’ appreciation for the value of using intelligence to generate evidence for terrorism investigations and prosecutions;
- increase their knowledge of the challenges in doing so, and of strategies for addressing these challenges; and
- build more effective and rule of law-based counter-terrorism capabilities and capacities.
The IIJ, together with four keynote speakers from Switzerland and the United States, convened three interactive sessions on Intelligence Analysis & Collection, Terrorist Explosive Devices and Crime Scene Evidence, and Mutual Legal Assistance. Each session included a video presentation by a keynote speaker and concluded with a hypothetical case study exercise. During the course’s dynamic discussions, practitioners shared their perspectives, insights and personal experiences on the gathering, handling and preserving of evidence, inter-agency cooperation, judicial investigations, and regional and international cooperation.
The first iteration of this workshop was delivered in Malta in July 2019 and engaged more than 55 practitioners from Cameroon, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Malta, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and the United States to examine and evaluate success factors, obstacles, and lessons learned, as well as strategies to facilitate the successful use of intelligence to generate evidence. The workshop provided a platform for judges, prosecutors, and investigators to examine a series of 13 hypothetical scenarios based on real-world cases in which intelligence-derived evidence was used in criminal investigations and prosecutions.
For more information on the IIJ Core Course, please contact Director, Programmatic Unit, Gail Malone.
