On December 22-23, 2022, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) - Viet Nam Program in collaboration with Department of Legal Affairs (Department 14), Supreme People's Procuracy (SPP) of Viet Nam, and People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City organized a training workshop on "Instruction of using Point to Prove guide and digital evidence in handling wildlife-related cases". The program is designed to improve the capacity of investigators and prosecutors of People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City in handling criminal cases in general, and wildlife-related cases in particular.
Mr Ta Ngoc Thanh, Director of HTI Services introduced digital evidence, Ho Chi Minh City, December 2022
50 participants who are representatives of the People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City, leaders and prosecutors of line departments, and People's Procuracy of 22 districts, cities under the People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City attended the training workshop. In addition, representatives of the SPP’s Department of public prosecutions and supervision over the investigation of economics crime (Department 3), Department of public prosecutions and supervision over the criminal adjudication (Department 7) , Department of International Cooperation and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (Department 13), and Department of Legal Affairs (Department 14) also participated in this event.
Group photo of the participants, Ho Chi Minh City, December 2022
At the training workshop, participants were introduced to the Points to Prove (P2P) approach and the application of the P2P in handling wildlife-related cases. In particular, the participants were guided to practice the application of the P2P Guide jointly developed and published by Department 14 and WCS Viet Nam, which is focused on legal application in handling cases of violations of the wildlife protection regulations. This training workshop was also an opportunity for the participants to share difficulties and exchange skills and experience in the execution of prosecution rights and supervising the handling of wildlife-related cases in Ho Chi Minh City. In the situation of criminal activity that has quickly moved to cyberspace since the global emergence of COVID-19, investigators and prosecutors are required to collect and use digital evidence for criminal investigation and prosecution. Therefore, the participants were also updated by experts from the Ministry of Public Security, Supreme People's Procuracy and the digital expert with information, knowledge and skills in collecting, preservation, evaluation and use of digital evidence for the investigation and handling of criminal cases in general and its application in handling wildlife-related cases.
Group discussion on P2P approach, Ho Chi Minh City, December 2022
The training workshop was conducted within the framework of the project “Combating Wildlife Trafficking in Viet Nam” funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), United States Department of State.