In today's digital world, securing electronic evidence from foreign jurisdictions and overseas service providers is crucial for tracking terrorist suspects, analyzing their communications, uncovering planned or committed crimes, and ultimately ensuring thorough investigations and enhanced border security.
Although mutual legal assistance (MLA) is the main approach for obtaining this type of evidence, the process is often complex and bureaucratic, resulting in significant delays. The slow pace of this process contrasts with the swift nature of online and cross-border digital crime, where the internet's lack of territorial boundaries adds complexity to this phenomenon.
Additionally, cloud computing has introduced new jurisdictional challenges, requiring careful consideration of where to direct MLA requests. Modern terrorist incidents underscore the need for immediate responses, data preservation, and urgent international cooperation. Countries face numerous challenges in this area, as sending a direct request does not ensure compliance from foreign service providers.
Electronic evidence travels instantly across borders, and relying on MLA can be slow and inefficient, especially for those unfamiliar with the procedure. In response to these challenges, UNODC organized a national seminar training on Procedures of requesting digital evidence from service providers located in foreign jurisdictions for terrorism related investigations. The seminar was held in Ashgabat on September 11-12, 2024, gathering participants from Turkmenistan and international experts.
UNODC's commitment to strengthening the capabilities of Member States was at the forefront of this event. The seminar aimed to support national criminal justice officials of Turkmenistan in strengthening their capacity to expeditiously obtain electronic evidence from foreign jurisdictions and overseas service providers, as well as to coordinate its use in enhancing border security and related investigations, prosecutions, and adjudications.
During his opening remarks, UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan, Dmitry Shlapachenko highlighted the fact that terrorists and violent extremists are increasingly using information and communications technologies (ICT) to promote distorted narratives justifying violence, radicalize and recruit supporters, mobilize resources, and plan attacks, leaving traces of their activities that can become extremely valuable electronic evidence.
During the two-day seminar, participants emphasized the importance of digital evidence in combating terrorism and violent extremism. They highlighted the need for a clear legal framework for requesting information, the process of obtaining information through mutual assistance channels, and the challenges law enforcement agencies face in securing court orders to access subscriber data and content from social media platforms.
UNODC remains committed to supporting Member States in their efforts to combat terrorism and organized crime through enhanced digital capabilities.
This training seminar was made possible thanks to the support of the Federal Republic of Germany.
