Under the EU-UNODC Initiative on Strengthening the Legal Regime against Foreign Terrorist Fighters in the Middle East, North Africa and South Eastern Europe, UNODC's Terrorism Prevention Branch implemented a training for Yemen aimed at increasing the capacity of criminal justice officers to use special investigation techniques to counter terrorist activities on the Internet in Amman from 16 to 20 May 2017.
The training, which was funded by the European Union, brought together 10 investigators and law enforcement officers representing criminal investigation units in Yemen that deal with terrorist cases, joined by experts from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and INTERPOL.
During the five-day training, participants were introduced to good practices to counter the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes and the international legal frameworks that are in place to govern them. The training comprised practical exercises on different aspects on conducting effective investigations on the Internet as well as the management of digital evidence using digital forensic tools. Participants were also trained on mobile forensic techniques on extracting data from communication devices while recognizing the legal considerations for seizing and searching them. This was followed by sessions focused on the identification of evidence handling procedure on the scene involving communication devices. Participants then applied this knowledge in a mock case.
The event concluded with participants sharing their experiences with experts that included the challenges and good practices regarding the use of information obtained from mobile forensic applications in terrorism related investigations. The sessions also encouraged participants to tackle mutual legal assistance requests for information communication from service providers and social media companies located in foreign countries.
Training certificates were distributed to the trainees who passed two exams, and all participants expressed their satisfaction with the programme.