Closing conference for the legal and forensic medicine project in Rabat
- Details
- Published: January 8, 2020
On 10 December 2019, the IRZ, in partnership with the Moroccan Public Prosecutor’s Office, organised a closing conference for 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. The IRZ coordinated this project between 2017 and the end of this year as part of the project financed by the German Foreign Office (Transformation Partnerships with North Africa/the Middle East).
The celebratory ceremony was opened with a speech by the German Ambassador, Dr. Götz Schmidt-Bremme.
Speaking as experts at the conference on behalf of the IRZ were Christof Lehmkühler, Detective Chief Inspector at the State Office of Criminal Investigations in Berlin, and Prof. Dr. Hansjürgen Bratzke, a former Director of the Institute of Legal and Forensic Medicine at the University Hospital of Frankfurt am Main. Around 35 Moroccan representatives from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Gendarmerie Royale, the Sûreté Nationale and legal and forensic medicine took part in the event.
Following on from the welcome speeches, there was an exchange of experiences on various subjects, which had been covered during this project. These included the cooperation between the judiciary, legal and forensic medicine and the police as well as the draft legislation for a professional code for forensic scientists. This draft legislation, which has been put to Parliament for approval, was discussed in in great detail, since the IRZ has provided valuable support in drawing up this legislation with several expert talks throughout the project.
The project has achieved the following objectives:
- support for independent legal and forensic medicine in Morocco by providing continued legal training and education for forensic scientists
- further training for judges and public prosecutors on the potential of legal and forensic medicine in law enforcement
- support for the development of a professional code for forensic scientists. The draft legislation for this is due to be approved this year.