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Alexander Bastrykin holds a briefing on activities of the Forensic Expert Centre of the Investigative Committee of Russia

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin held a video-conference briefing attended by First Deputy and Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Eduard Kaburneev and Sergey Goryainov and heads of a number of units of the Central Office of the Committee and the Forensic Expert Centre of the Investigative Committee of Russia. The briefing was devoted to issues of future organization of work of the Forensic Expert Centre of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

The head of the Committee listened to a report of the acting head of the Forensic Expert Centre Anatoly Bagmet on activities of the institution and its performance since the moment of establishment. Since September 2020 experts of the institution have carried out over 2000 molecular-genetic examinations and over 500 studies detecting over 37,000 objects of biological origin. Over 700 persons involved in committing offenses and 100 previously unidentified dead bodies have been identified upon results of molecular genetic examinations carried out during this period. During this period over 1,100 genetic profiles of traces from crime scenes have been registered in the federal data base of genome information; over 20,000 genetic profiles of verified persons have been checked.

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee noted that, first of all, it is necessary to pay special attention to carrying out urgent expert examinations, stressing that our experts should delve into the situation as deeply as possible and be extremely careful about the examinations required by the investigators of the Investigative Committee of Russia to establish the true picture. Also, it is important to not only be able to use highly efficient methods of examination but to use the whole range of achievements and methods of different sciences. The head of the Committee drew attention to the fact that the Forensic Expert Centre of the Investigative Committee of Russia should not replace other expert institutions in our country, but should carry out its activities in accordance with the competence of the Investigative Committee, which was created to investigate complex and socially significant criminal cases. He also added that it's necessary to continue work of further advanced training of experts and attracting highly qualified specialists on the most controversial issues. The Forensic Expert Centre of the Investigative Committee of Russia is already employing 4 experts having 4 admissions for the right to conduct examinations, 88 experts with admissions to 3 types of examinations and 171 expert with 2 admissions.

Apart from that, the head of the Committee dwelled on the issues of operational interaction between the experts of the Forensic Expert Centre and the forensic experts of the Main Forensics Department (Forensics Centre) of the Investigative Committee of Russia, pointing out the need for further joint development of methods, theory and practice of forensic examination.

Alexander Bastrykin reminded that one of the main tasks of the Investigative Committee of Russia is protection of the rights of citizens. "Further reduction of the crime rate in the country, well-being and peaceful life of citizens depend on our efforts. Our task is to timely restore violated rights of citizens, victimized by adverse actions. Such organization of our activities builds confidence in the Investigative Committee and helps us achieve positive results, and this is the main criterion for evaluation of all our work", the head of the Committee underlined.  

The participants also discussed the optimization of the staffing of the institution and the possibility to increase the number of experts proportionally to the operational situation in the region and the number of criminal cases investigated by investigators of the Committee. Moreover, the discussion concerned funding of equipment repairs, development of branches of the Forensic Expert Centre in the Russian Federation including establishment of a southern branch of the Forensic Expert Centre of the Investigative Committee of Russia in Rostov-on-Don.

Following the meeting, the head of the department gave specific instructions and assignments aimed at strengthening the said direction, as well as at systematic development of the Forensic Expert Center of the Investigative Committee of Russia.