United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Central America and the Caribbean

Fourth Group Trained in Arguing before Court in Cases Involving Digital Evidence in Belize

Belize, 7 June 2021. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Central America and the Caribbean (UNODC ROPAN), through the Global Programme on Cybercrime, delivered the fourth training in arguing before court in cases involving digital evidence, addressed to prosecutors, investigators and digital forensic analysts. The activity took place from 31 May to 3 June.

In this twelve-hour training workshop, prosecutors, investigators and digital forensic analysts were trained with the purpose of increasing their knowledge and skills to effectively prosecute criminal cases where information and communication technologies (ICT) have been used, or other type of criminal cases that include certain digital elements that can and must be considered as evidence in court.

The Belizean Police Department participated in this training by sending officers from the Police Prosecution Branch and the Police Cybercrime Unit.

Furthermore, in this training different topics were addressed, including prosecutorial considerations when investigating cases involving digital evidence, digital evidence during the trial, due diligence and human rights considerations, as well as digital evidence in the Belizean legal context.

Additionally, case studies on prosecuting online child sexual exploitation were presented and explained, highlighting best practices and lessons learned.

This training was the last in a series of four workshops in arguing before court, in which most of the prosecutors in Belize were trained, including senior prosecution officials, as well as all members of the Police Cybercrime Unit. In this sense, the Head of the Cybercrime Unit remarked that the knowledge and skills developed in this activity are critically important in terms of relevance and applicability to investigate and prosecute cybercrime in Belize.

This training has been made possible thanks to the funding from the Canadian government to the UNODC Global Programme on Cybercrime.