Iraqi legal system puts new emphasis on forensics

Vital clues are often lost after deadly bombings in Iraq, where scenes of carnage are quickly hosed down and bodies whisked away for burial, but this is changing with a new emphasis on forensic investigation.

Three new main forensics laboratories and two smaller ones have become fully operational this year and the legal system, which has long relied on confessions, sometimes given under duress, is taking steps towards more evidence-based prosecution.

"It is a confession-based system. But if the suspect is confronted with scientific evidence such as fingerprints from a crime scene, it's better than getting a screamed confession under duress," said Robert Lamburne, director of forensic services at the British embassy in Baghdad.

Britain, the United States, Australia and other Western countries have been providing training and equipment for Iraqi judges and investigators, who have a heavy workload in a country where bombings and shootings are commonplace.

"Evidence is better. It's that which gets to the truth of the matter," Iraqi Judge Ibrahim Abdul Latif said at a seminar aimed at better utilising forensic evidence in Iraqi law.

Lamburne said there was initial reluctance from some judges, mainly older ones, to embrace new methods such as DNA analysis.

Years of war and sanctions have isolated Iraq's security forces from modern technology and techniques. Iraqi and U.S. officials say courts have a relatively low conviction rate because of lack of evidence and credible confessions.

"We have few qualified cadres ... When there's a bomb, you'll see U.S. forces come and search for the smallest, tiniest piece of evidence," said Judge Khalil Hashem Saleh, of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council.

"Unfortunately, our forces don't pay attention and push the evidence aside, so the courts do not reach a decision."



SERIES OF BOMBINGS

U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq's urban centres, part of a plan to pull out fully by the end of 2011. That will leave Iraqi forces to take the lead.

Their competence has been called into question by a series of high-profile bombings in recent months aimed against government centres in Baghdad and killing hundreds of people. However, overall violence has declined sharply in the past two years since the worst of the sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion.

American soldiers are sometimes on the scene after bombings and help local forces analyse forensic evidence.

Less frequent violence could allow Iraqi forces to move from simply trying to keep order after attacks to seeking to find those responsible.

"You have to remember in Baghdad that we've had so many attacks, such disorder, there's been less priority, I think, given to criminal investigation and more to just public order," said a U.S. embassy official who declined to be identified.

"Now we're starting to see protocols designed for crime scene response and a budding of forensics investigations and capabilities."

The main forensics labs are in Baghdad, Basra and Arbil, and deal with ballistics, DNA, chemical and biological analysis and fingerprints. There are two smaller labs in Hilla and Mosul.

(Editing by Andrew Dobbie)



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