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Babil Province judges learn more about forensics

Courtesy Photo | Ed Freyer, an assistant to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division's...... read more read more

ISKANDARIYAH, IRAQ

12.12.2009

Courtesy Story

Multi-National Division-South

By Sgt. Ben Hutto

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq — The Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team held their first forensics conference for 30 local judges, prosecutors, and investigators, Dec. 12, at Forward Operating Base Kalsu.

The Babil officials were given a tour of the FOB Kalsu forensics lab, shown a case study of how effective modern evidence gathering techniques are and given an opportunity to question their American counter-parts as part of the conference.

"It was very helpful," Judge Mohanad al Dolaimi, the general prosecutor for the Babil province, said through a translator. "Everything we saw today, we have a great need for. We are missing much of this technology."

Ed Freyer, an assistant to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division's rule-of-law expert, spent about 45 minutes going through one of his cases when he was with the FBI in 1994. Freyer said he thought his presentation was an eye-opener for many of the Babil officials.

"I could see a lot of nodding heads when I was speaking," he said. "They understood most of what I was saying and see its value. They aren't quite at our level yet, but they see what their forensics labs can be in the future."

Judge Mohanad hopes that his labs will be able to catch up soon.

"We must dismiss about 25 percent of our cases because we cannot prove who committed the crime," he said. "We need more training, we need more qualified teams to go through evidence and we need better technology. Of course, this was a good start, but we need to keep improving on what we have."