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- Published: March 29, 2019
Moroccan public prosecutors visit Berlin for a study visit on legal and forensic medicine
From 18 to 22 March 2019, the IRZ in Berlin hosted ten public prosecutors from various regions of Morocco for a study visit on “Ways to achieve successful cooperation between the justice system and legal and forensic medicine.”
At the start of the visit, the delegation was welcomed to the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. After a short introduction to the structure and organisation of the Ministry, the Moroccan guests were able to find out more about the role of forensic reports in criminal proceedings and the relevant legal foundations in this respect. The relationship between the justice system and legal and forensic medicine was also discussed, with a particular focus on the importance of the independence of expertw.
At the Institute of Legal and Forensic Medicine at the Charité Berlin, the deputy head of the institute, Lars Oesterhelweg, presented the various tasks involved in legal and forensic medicine and gave the participants an insight into the current state of legal and forensic medicine in Germany. Afterwards, the participants visited the dissection room, the department of toxicological tests and the outpatients’ clinic for protection against violence at the Institute of Legal and Forensic Medicine,
Other ports of call on the study visit included the Public Prosecutor's Office in Berlin and the LKA (state office of criminal investigation) in Berlin. Thanks to many years of experience in prosecuting homicides, Senior Public Prosecutor Ralph Knispel was able to address many issues concerning the cooperation between public prosecutor’s offices, police criminal investigation departments and legal and forensic medicine. There were some lively discussions on the various challenges facing Germany and Morocco in this area. Detective Chief Inspector Guido Sündermann explained the practicalities of this kind of cooperation using an example case. He explained in which cases a forensic scientist is called to the scene of the crime in Germany and to what extent the investigations of police and forensic medicine are kept separate from one another.
The study visit by the Moroccan delegation took place as part of the “Cooperation with the Kingdom of Morocco in the field of legal and forensic medicine, with particular consideration paid to the concerns of the Moroccan justice system” project, which the IRZ is coordinating between 2017 and 2019 as part of the project financed by the German Foreign Office (Transformation Partnerships with North Africa/the Middle East). The next study visit on this subject will take place in June 2019.