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It may seem that it is safer to go beyond the law in the digital world than in the real one: it is easier to destroy traces of a crime, and there are not so many specialists of the right profile in the law enforcement agencies. In fact, this is not the case. I served for seven years in the preliminary investigation bodies (the investigative Committee, the Ministry of internal Affairs) and investigated many crimes in the field of information technology. In this article, I will tell you what to expect and how to ease your fate if you come to the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Let's hope you're reading this article out of curiosity, not out of necessity!
TYPES OF CRIMES
Crimes in the field of IT are very diverse. I will highlight the main ones that I have to deal with almost every day.
Theft with the use of information technologies
This category includes fraud using phishing, theft of funds from accounts, including carding.
Crimes in the sphere of drug trafficking
Soon it will be ten years since the illegal silk Road market appeared, and since then the fight against anonymous trading platforms has not subsided around the world. There are still adventurers who believe that no one will find their online store. Just look at the statistics and you will see how many such businesses cover up every year - these are huge figures; but for the sale of drugs in the Russian Federation, you can easily serve a quarter of a century!
Purchase of special funds
This and the next item are called "people's articles", and here's why. The law enforcement system likes statistics: the more people are brought to justice, the better-bonuses, awards, and titles of employees depend on this.
A few years ago, there was a bug in the legislation that made it possible to hold accountable "geeks" who buy mobile phones, GPS beacons, and micro cameras that are not licensed in the territory of the Russian Federation-for acquiring funds for secretly obtaining information.
Internet extremism
The timing of the "mems" or "repost" everyone has heard of. Now this article is not so fierce, and yet hundreds of people have already received their suspended sentences and criminal records.
Creation, distribution of malicious programs, or unauthorized access to computer information
This is already a real hacker article, and quite rare. The less common a crime is, the more interesting it is for statistics. So if you come to the attention of the authorities in connection with something like this, then they will "develop" you more diligently than usual.
Distribution of child pornography
Fans of torrents run into this line-up: if you download it and forget to delete it — consider that you are already committing a crime. Caught the malware and gave your PC to the botnet? They'll come for you.
In our bodies, they "calculate by IP" without any jokes. Anyone who gets caught in this way is most likely not a malicious hacker, but an innocent fan of cracked programs. Nevertheless, the removal of equipment will not be complete.
THE INTERNET AGGRAVATES
I would like to emphasize that under the Criminal code, fraud, theft, and drug trafficking via the Internet entail more serious sanctions than the same crimes committed without the use of information technologies.
Cybercrimes are more difficult to solve, so not so long ago they were "aggravated" - now these compounds are serious and especially serious. So for stealing two thousand rubles from the pocket of a bag, you will sit on "recognizance not to leave" during the preliminary investigation and get off with a suspended sentence, and if you stole two thousand rubles from a Bank card account, you can easily be arrested and get a very real term of up to ten years.
TIME IS AGAINST YOU
If you have crossed the line of the law (through carelessness or intentionally), then neither tomorrow nor the day after tomorrow, most likely, will not come for you. Even operational units are burdened with bureaucratic requirements and do not always live up to their name and act quickly.
In addition, in all textbooks on operational investigative activities, it is recommended not to rush, but to thoroughly gain a foothold in the evidence. If you catch the attacker too early, then all the work can go down the drain: there is not enough evidence base and he will have to be released.
Law enforcement officers aren't always smarter than the criminal, but they can wait. I've seen cases where cybercriminals have been developed for more than a year. Sooner or later, the attacker will lose his guard and make a clear mistake. Here it is possible to impute to it at once a set of crimes. After all, each theft or other action is a separate crime, and it is always more profitable for the authorities to attract a person for 10-20 crimes than for one.
HOW CAN LAW ENFORCEMENT EVEN KNOW ABOUT YOU?
The first "thread" can come from anywhere: informants, data providers, some analytical results of traffic or a message from citizens about an illegal action committed against them.
By what signs can you understand that you are "under the hood"? The main tool is intuition. But there are also more objective signs.
INSPECTION PRIOR TO INITIATION OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
Before initiating a criminal case, law enforcement agencies review the verification material. If such material exists, it means that law enforcement agencies already have information about the possible Commission of a crime.
One tactic is to collect all the evidence at this stage so that the criminal investigation is not delayed. Sometimes, after reviewing the verification material, the investigator can only formalize the procedure and send the criminal case to the court.
The trick is that the check lasts up to 30 days, then the employee makes a formal decision to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings, the Prosecutor cancels this decision and the check period begins anew. Thus it is possible to review the verification material and search for evidence for a long time: I've seen the inspection materials from five years ago, and this is not uncommon at all.
A criminal case cannot be prolonged forever. Investigators aim to investigate it within two months. Only cases with a high public profile are allowed to be investigated for more than a year.
A number of investigative actions can be carried out even within the framework of verification:
Inspection
Without initiating a criminal case, a search will not work, but if you have obvious traces of a crime in your apartment, then everything necessary can be done as part of a routine inspection of the scene and even against your will. Inspection against the will will also have to be legalized after the fact through the court, so that the seized evidence is considered legitimate. However, investigators take such a step only if they have reinforced concrete foundations on their hands, and in most cases the courts agree to legalize such actions.
Also, if circumstances do not tolerate delay, even a search can be carried out without prior permission from the court and legalize it later.
How does a home inspection differ from a search? In both cases, the action may occur against your will and be accompanied by the seizure of things, but according to the law, the difference lies in the goals. But even here there are no clear boundaries.
In practice, inspections tend to make "softer", do not turn everything inside out, but simply explore the place. However, even during the inspection, employees can search anywhere and anything.
Survey
As part of the verification process, you may be called for an interview (not an interrogation!). You are allowed to bring a lawyer to the interview. This is not necessary, but it is important to make a realistic assessment of the risks. Perhaps, immediately after the interview, a criminal case will be opened against you and your problems will suddenly take a serious turn.
In any case, arrange with a good lawyer to be ready to come to you in an emergency. If you are detained, you will not be able to leave the building of the law enforcement service on your own.
CRIMINAL CASE
If a criminal case is opened against you, of course, you will immediately know about it. Most likely, the soob investigator I'll show you not even by mail, but already in my office, officially inviting you to investigative actions.
But there is a caveat - a criminal case can also be initiated against an unidentified person. The investigation may not have enough evidence, or the perpetrator has not yet been identified. Or it may be that you have already been "identified" informally, or that the investigator is simply using this trick to conduct operational search and investigative activities while you remain in the dark.
Scenarios of interaction with the investigation
Scenario one: you found out that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person. Personally, you are not affected by the active actions of the authorities, but you took a real part in the crime (if you did not take part, then there is nothing to worry about, I have not heard that innocent people are jailed for cybercrime).
The second scenario: you learned that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person, but you are being involved in inactive investigative actions (interrogations as a witness, searches while maintaining the status of a witness, and so on). in this scenario, you will have less rights than in the status of a suspect, which simplifies the investigation.
The third scenario is when a criminal case is opened against you or you are interrogated as a suspect (these events are equivalent — in both cases you have the status of a suspect).
In the first two scenarios, it is enough to develop a line of independent defense and, if possible, discuss with a specialist how events can develop, what could mitigate and what could aggravate the punishment.
In the third case, you must immediately enter into an agreement with a lawyer.
In any case, if you find out that something is being planned against you, even if these are verification measures, you should stop any illegal activities as soon as possible and pull the white hat more tightly over your ears, once and for all switching to the bright side. Perhaps you will be lucky and you will get off with an alarm bell and wasted nerves.
Preliminary investigation
The preliminary investigation is divided into several stages.
The first stage - the initiation of a criminal case - has already been sorted out.
The interrogation
The second stage begins soon - this is an interrogation. In a preliminary investigation, it gives you a criminal procedure status: witness, suspect, accused.
Each of these statuses implies its own rights and obligations in a particular criminal case, you can find them in CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.
If the crime is not serious, you will be called in for questioning, a non-custodial measure will be chosen (recognizance not to leave and proper behavior), and you will be called by phone to other investigative activities.
In the case of a serious crime, you can be detained, and even before a criminal case is initiated. Employees of the operational services will catch you in any place other than your home (here you still need a court decision and an open criminal case), take you to the investigator's office and draw up a Protocol of detention.
Detention
Employees can approach you at any time, even when you are calmly walking down the street. They'll introduce themselves and say you're in custody. It is better not to resist, because any bruise on the body of a law enforcement officer is a criminal article.
You need to call your relatives or a lawyer, but do it without aggression, otherwise the phone will be immediately withdrawn during the search.
You will be brought to the investigator, and he will draw up a report of the detention. During detention, the presence of a lawyer is not necessary in principle. Still, you can't influence the detention if it's legal. And it is legal in three exceptional cases:
The Protocol of detention must be signed, since the investigator's note "refused to sign" will negatively affect the consideration of the criminal case by the court.
Make sure that the time of detention in the report coincides with the time of actual detention. From this moment, 48 hours are counted, during which the investigator must go to court with a request for arrest and prepare materials proving why the deprivation of liberty is necessary for an objective investigation of the criminal case.
When you are detained, the investigator is obliged to give you a call, use this right wisely. Don't call your accomplices, because employees will hear your entire conversation (and will be able to track the call), and it's a bad idea to come up with a verbal cipher on the go.
You'd better call your relatives so that they can bring you bed linen and warm clothes as soon as possible, so that you don't die in the isolation ward. The investigators will meet you halfway and wait, because then it will be much more difficult to transfer things to the isolation ward.
Search results
In the early stages of the investigation, an inspection of the scene or a search must be carried out, in which at least two witnesses must participate. Search and seize any items that are of interest to the investigation. You won't be allowed to leave the search area. At the end, the officers will draw up a search report, and you will be able to read it and make a photocopy.
If your equipment - whether it's a hard drive or a PC in its entirety-wants to be disconnected and taken away, an it expert (a civilian or a specialist from the forensic center) must be present during the search. An operational employee, even if he is from FBI or police, cannot replace such a specialist.
Expert reviews
If you are a suspect or a witness, further examinations are waiting for you.
Expertise can be of different directions: from computer, to phonoscopic, fingerprint, biological. It all depends on the objects under study. In any case, the suspect must be introduced to the examinations. And a witness - only when samples were taken directly from him.
Other investigative actions
Charge
In the end, when the investigation has formed a qualification of your actions, you will be charged. You can agree, partially agree, or disagree with the charge. At this stage, you will definitely be interrogated again-already as an accused, in order to put all the dots over the "I" and understand your attitude to criminal prosecution (whether you repent or not) and the final position on your act with which you will appear in court.
Final part of the preliminary investigation
You will definitely be given all the materials of the criminal case for review, and a Protocol will be drawn up. You will be able to study all the evidence that the investigator has collected, and together with your lawyer, choose the final line of defense for the trial. In the Protocol of familiarization, you can apply for the choice of judicial proceedings (for example, in a special order or by jury).
At this stage, the investigation has been completed. Then the criminal case will be sent to the Prosecutor's office for approval, and then to the court.
Admission of guilt, confession and special procedure
Whether to admit guilt or not is up to you. The main rule: do not admit to anything that you did not do. If you are subjected to violence or threats ("confess, otherwise we will beat you"), threaten that you will write a statement to the Investigative Committee. This is where the threats are likely to end, since "knocking out" testimony is a crime on the part of employees and entails serious sanctions.
When you have actually committed a crime, denying guilt is the worst option if a criminal case goes to court. The court will give the maximum term, and even with imprisonment.
Conversely, criminal proceedings are very humane for those who confess. If you committed a crime for the first time and confessed to it, there will not even be a trial, only a court fine. As a result, you won't have a criminal record. This is an innovation in the legislation. The application of a court fine has its own nuances, read more in the code of criminal procedure of the USA.
What else will help? Turn yourself in. In the old days, it was the "Queen of evidence", but now it is a life hack that allows you to reduce the maximum penalty. Even if you wrote a confession, and then the whole investigation was in denial and you were found guilty in court-the appearance will help you out.
If the conditions for applying a court fine are not met - there is a special procedure. Admitted full guilt? Ask for a special order. Then the court does not consider the case on its merits, but only decides on sanctions. In most cases, a special procedure will result in a suspended sentence or (if you also turned yourself in) a minimum real term.
Lawyer
A lawyer is your main defense tool. You can hire one yourself, "by agreement", or use the services of a free lawyer provided by the state. An appointed lawyer is not just a formality, many of them defend in good faith, and the famous "pocket investigator's lawyers" have long been a thing of the past, since they are appointed not on the investigator's call, but according to the queue established in the bar Association. Often, a designated defense lawyer will be enough, especially if your strategy is to admit guilt. In this case, it will be more effective to spend money not on a lawyer, but on compensation for damages.
If you realize that you are charged with more than you have committed, hire a lawyer under the agreement. A good defender is expensive, but it will never guarantee you evasion of responsibility and will even warn you about it directly. Of course, if it is really a professional, and not a marketing lawyer who will imitate a stormy activity and make promises for your money. Unfortunately, there are no ratings of lawyers ' professionalism, so you have to rely on word of mouth, previous experience in the right category of cases, and reputation.
GENERAL TIPS ON HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE INVESTIGATION
Do not conflict with representatives of the state, they always have more powers. This is especially true for the investigator, because this is the only employee who can really influence the fate of a criminal case in the range from "not proven" to "maximum term and worst conditions in a temporary detention center and in the zone".
Chain of command is an important point. How many times have I seen a suspect pay a bitter price for his cheeky behavior with a female investigator? Conversely, if the investigator sees respect and understanding on your part, they will probably respond in kind.
It is also not worth giving in to the investigation, because their job is to send criminal cases with as serious elements as possible to the court in order to improve statistics.
The optimal behavior model is to negotiate. For example, an investigator often forgets to acquaint a suspect with their rights before starting an investigative action. It is much better not to write a complaint, but to mention it with understanding, ask him to meet you halfway, mitigate the guilt. They wouldn't have satisfied your complaint anyway, but the investigator's location will come in handy.
The investigator is also a human being and strives to do his job fairly. If you see that the investigator is torn between conscience and the demands of his superiors to improve the indicators of severity and the number of trains, show your best sides. Let them know that you just made a mistake, but now you are ready to become another "Kevin Mitnick" and teach young hackers not to make mistakes and not to break the law.
MEMO
Let's hope you're reading this article out of curiosity, not out of necessity!
TYPES OF CRIMES
Crimes in the field of IT are very diverse. I will highlight the main ones that I have to deal with almost every day.
Theft with the use of information technologies
This category includes fraud using phishing, theft of funds from accounts, including carding.
Crimes in the sphere of drug trafficking
Soon it will be ten years since the illegal silk Road market appeared, and since then the fight against anonymous trading platforms has not subsided around the world. There are still adventurers who believe that no one will find their online store. Just look at the statistics and you will see how many such businesses cover up every year - these are huge figures; but for the sale of drugs in the Russian Federation, you can easily serve a quarter of a century!
Purchase of special funds
This and the next item are called "people's articles", and here's why. The law enforcement system likes statistics: the more people are brought to justice, the better-bonuses, awards, and titles of employees depend on this.
A few years ago, there was a bug in the legislation that made it possible to hold accountable "geeks" who buy mobile phones, GPS beacons, and micro cameras that are not licensed in the territory of the Russian Federation-for acquiring funds for secretly obtaining information.
Internet extremism
The timing of the "mems" or "repost" everyone has heard of. Now this article is not so fierce, and yet hundreds of people have already received their suspended sentences and criminal records.
Creation, distribution of malicious programs, or unauthorized access to computer information
This is already a real hacker article, and quite rare. The less common a crime is, the more interesting it is for statistics. So if you come to the attention of the authorities in connection with something like this, then they will "develop" you more diligently than usual.
Distribution of child pornography
Fans of torrents run into this line-up: if you download it and forget to delete it — consider that you are already committing a crime. Caught the malware and gave your PC to the botnet? They'll come for you.
In our bodies, they "calculate by IP" without any jokes. Anyone who gets caught in this way is most likely not a malicious hacker, but an innocent fan of cracked programs. Nevertheless, the removal of equipment will not be complete.
THE INTERNET AGGRAVATES
I would like to emphasize that under the Criminal code, fraud, theft, and drug trafficking via the Internet entail more serious sanctions than the same crimes committed without the use of information technologies.
Cybercrimes are more difficult to solve, so not so long ago they were "aggravated" - now these compounds are serious and especially serious. So for stealing two thousand rubles from the pocket of a bag, you will sit on "recognizance not to leave" during the preliminary investigation and get off with a suspended sentence, and if you stole two thousand rubles from a Bank card account, you can easily be arrested and get a very real term of up to ten years.
TIME IS AGAINST YOU
If you have crossed the line of the law (through carelessness or intentionally), then neither tomorrow nor the day after tomorrow, most likely, will not come for you. Even operational units are burdened with bureaucratic requirements and do not always live up to their name and act quickly.
In addition, in all textbooks on operational investigative activities, it is recommended not to rush, but to thoroughly gain a foothold in the evidence. If you catch the attacker too early, then all the work can go down the drain: there is not enough evidence base and he will have to be released.
Law enforcement officers aren't always smarter than the criminal, but they can wait. I've seen cases where cybercriminals have been developed for more than a year. Sooner or later, the attacker will lose his guard and make a clear mistake. Here it is possible to impute to it at once a set of crimes. After all, each theft or other action is a separate crime, and it is always more profitable for the authorities to attract a person for 10-20 crimes than for one.
HOW CAN LAW ENFORCEMENT EVEN KNOW ABOUT YOU?
The first "thread" can come from anywhere: informants, data providers, some analytical results of traffic or a message from citizens about an illegal action committed against them.
By what signs can you understand that you are "under the hood"? The main tool is intuition. But there are also more objective signs.
- Your phone has started working strangely; there are suspicions that you are being tapped.
- There are "new friends" who are interested in your activities.
- Strangers ask your neighbors about you - they may be law enforcement officers.
INSPECTION PRIOR TO INITIATION OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
Before initiating a criminal case, law enforcement agencies review the verification material. If such material exists, it means that law enforcement agencies already have information about the possible Commission of a crime.
One tactic is to collect all the evidence at this stage so that the criminal investigation is not delayed. Sometimes, after reviewing the verification material, the investigator can only formalize the procedure and send the criminal case to the court.
The trick is that the check lasts up to 30 days, then the employee makes a formal decision to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings, the Prosecutor cancels this decision and the check period begins anew. Thus it is possible to review the verification material and search for evidence for a long time: I've seen the inspection materials from five years ago, and this is not uncommon at all.
A criminal case cannot be prolonged forever. Investigators aim to investigate it within two months. Only cases with a high public profile are allowed to be investigated for more than a year.
A number of investigative actions can be carried out even within the framework of verification:
- inspections of the scene of an accident (for example, your apartment), where equipment can be seized;
- interview (this is not an investigative action in the full sense, but the interview will be based on the testimony of the survey, and if the article is suddenly under investigation by the investigative body, then the survey can be evidence);
- expert reviews;
- obtaining samples of voice, handwriting, fingerprints and palms of hands, genotype for comparative research;
- requests to providers, banks, mobile phone companies, and other organizations;
- assignments to other services, including foreign ones via Interpol.
Inspection
Without initiating a criminal case, a search will not work, but if you have obvious traces of a crime in your apartment, then everything necessary can be done as part of a routine inspection of the scene and even against your will. Inspection against the will will also have to be legalized after the fact through the court, so that the seized evidence is considered legitimate. However, investigators take such a step only if they have reinforced concrete foundations on their hands, and in most cases the courts agree to legalize such actions.
Also, if circumstances do not tolerate delay, even a search can be carried out without prior permission from the court and legalize it later.
How does a home inspection differ from a search? In both cases, the action may occur against your will and be accompanied by the seizure of things, but according to the law, the difference lies in the goals. But even here there are no clear boundaries.
In practice, inspections tend to make "softer", do not turn everything inside out, but simply explore the place. However, even during the inspection, employees can search anywhere and anything.
Survey
As part of the verification process, you may be called for an interview (not an interrogation!). You are allowed to bring a lawyer to the interview. This is not necessary, but it is important to make a realistic assessment of the risks. Perhaps, immediately after the interview, a criminal case will be opened against you and your problems will suddenly take a serious turn.
In any case, arrange with a good lawyer to be ready to come to you in an emergency. If you are detained, you will not be able to leave the building of the law enforcement service on your own.
CRIMINAL CASE
If a criminal case is opened against you, of course, you will immediately know about it. Most likely, the soob investigator I'll show you not even by mail, but already in my office, officially inviting you to investigative actions.
But there is a caveat - a criminal case can also be initiated against an unidentified person. The investigation may not have enough evidence, or the perpetrator has not yet been identified. Or it may be that you have already been "identified" informally, or that the investigator is simply using this trick to conduct operational search and investigative activities while you remain in the dark.
Scenarios of interaction with the investigation
Scenario one: you found out that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person. Personally, you are not affected by the active actions of the authorities, but you took a real part in the crime (if you did not take part, then there is nothing to worry about, I have not heard that innocent people are jailed for cybercrime).
The second scenario: you learned that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person, but you are being involved in inactive investigative actions (interrogations as a witness, searches while maintaining the status of a witness, and so on). in this scenario, you will have less rights than in the status of a suspect, which simplifies the investigation.
The third scenario is when a criminal case is opened against you or you are interrogated as a suspect (these events are equivalent — in both cases you have the status of a suspect).
In the first two scenarios, it is enough to develop a line of independent defense and, if possible, discuss with a specialist how events can develop, what could mitigate and what could aggravate the punishment.
In the third case, you must immediately enter into an agreement with a lawyer.
In any case, if you find out that something is being planned against you, even if these are verification measures, you should stop any illegal activities as soon as possible and pull the white hat more tightly over your ears, once and for all switching to the bright side. Perhaps you will be lucky and you will get off with an alarm bell and wasted nerves.
Preliminary investigation
The preliminary investigation is divided into several stages.
The first stage - the initiation of a criminal case - has already been sorted out.
The interrogation
The second stage begins soon - this is an interrogation. In a preliminary investigation, it gives you a criminal procedure status: witness, suspect, accused.
Each of these statuses implies its own rights and obligations in a particular criminal case, you can find them in CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.
If the crime is not serious, you will be called in for questioning, a non-custodial measure will be chosen (recognizance not to leave and proper behavior), and you will be called by phone to other investigative activities.
In the case of a serious crime, you can be detained, and even before a criminal case is initiated. Employees of the operational services will catch you in any place other than your home (here you still need a court decision and an open criminal case), take you to the investigator's office and draw up a Protocol of detention.
Detention
Employees can approach you at any time, even when you are calmly walking down the street. They'll introduce themselves and say you're in custody. It is better not to resist, because any bruise on the body of a law enforcement officer is a criminal article.
You need to call your relatives or a lawyer, but do it without aggression, otherwise the phone will be immediately withdrawn during the search.
You will be brought to the investigator, and he will draw up a report of the detention. During detention, the presence of a lawyer is not necessary in principle. Still, you can't influence the detention if it's legal. And it is legal in three exceptional cases:
- when the detainee is caught in the act of committing a crime or immediately after it is committed;
- when victims or eyewitnesses point to him as the person who committed the crime;
- when obvious traces of a crime are found on a person or their clothing, with them or in their home.
The Protocol of detention must be signed, since the investigator's note "refused to sign" will negatively affect the consideration of the criminal case by the court.
Make sure that the time of detention in the report coincides with the time of actual detention. From this moment, 48 hours are counted, during which the investigator must go to court with a request for arrest and prepare materials proving why the deprivation of liberty is necessary for an objective investigation of the criminal case.
When you are detained, the investigator is obliged to give you a call, use this right wisely. Don't call your accomplices, because employees will hear your entire conversation (and will be able to track the call), and it's a bad idea to come up with a verbal cipher on the go.
You'd better call your relatives so that they can bring you bed linen and warm clothes as soon as possible, so that you don't die in the isolation ward. The investigators will meet you halfway and wait, because then it will be much more difficult to transfer things to the isolation ward.
Search results
In the early stages of the investigation, an inspection of the scene or a search must be carried out, in which at least two witnesses must participate. Search and seize any items that are of interest to the investigation. You won't be allowed to leave the search area. At the end, the officers will draw up a search report, and you will be able to read it and make a photocopy.
If your equipment - whether it's a hard drive or a PC in its entirety-wants to be disconnected and taken away, an it expert (a civilian or a specialist from the forensic center) must be present during the search. An operational employee, even if he is from FBI or police, cannot replace such a specialist.
Expert reviews
If you are a suspect or a witness, further examinations are waiting for you.
Expertise can be of different directions: from computer, to phonoscopic, fingerprint, biological. It all depends on the objects under study. In any case, the suspect must be introduced to the examinations. And a witness - only when samples were taken directly from him.
Other investigative actions
- Giving evidence on the spot: under video or photo recording, you will tell and show what you did and how you did it right at the scene of the crime.
- Investigative experiment: employees will reproduce the conditions under which the crime was committed to make sure that their or your assumptions are realistic.
- Face-to-face bet. Even if you have built a perfect technical defense, refuse to admit guilt, and the investigation does not have objective evidence, your partner can always turn you in. In this case, the investigation will hold a confrontation between you and your partner, where he will tell you "how it was", and you will either stand your ground or agree with him. In any case, you will have a version conflict, the purpose of which is to establish the truth.
Charge
In the end, when the investigation has formed a qualification of your actions, you will be charged. You can agree, partially agree, or disagree with the charge. At this stage, you will definitely be interrogated again-already as an accused, in order to put all the dots over the "I" and understand your attitude to criminal prosecution (whether you repent or not) and the final position on your act with which you will appear in court.
Final part of the preliminary investigation
You will definitely be given all the materials of the criminal case for review, and a Protocol will be drawn up. You will be able to study all the evidence that the investigator has collected, and together with your lawyer, choose the final line of defense for the trial. In the Protocol of familiarization, you can apply for the choice of judicial proceedings (for example, in a special order or by jury).
At this stage, the investigation has been completed. Then the criminal case will be sent to the Prosecutor's office for approval, and then to the court.
Admission of guilt, confession and special procedure
Whether to admit guilt or not is up to you. The main rule: do not admit to anything that you did not do. If you are subjected to violence or threats ("confess, otherwise we will beat you"), threaten that you will write a statement to the Investigative Committee. This is where the threats are likely to end, since "knocking out" testimony is a crime on the part of employees and entails serious sanctions.
When you have actually committed a crime, denying guilt is the worst option if a criminal case goes to court. The court will give the maximum term, and even with imprisonment.
Conversely, criminal proceedings are very humane for those who confess. If you committed a crime for the first time and confessed to it, there will not even be a trial, only a court fine. As a result, you won't have a criminal record. This is an innovation in the legislation. The application of a court fine has its own nuances, read more in the code of criminal procedure of the USA.
What else will help? Turn yourself in. In the old days, it was the "Queen of evidence", but now it is a life hack that allows you to reduce the maximum penalty. Even if you wrote a confession, and then the whole investigation was in denial and you were found guilty in court-the appearance will help you out.
If the conditions for applying a court fine are not met - there is a special procedure. Admitted full guilt? Ask for a special order. Then the court does not consider the case on its merits, but only decides on sanctions. In most cases, a special procedure will result in a suspended sentence or (if you also turned yourself in) a minimum real term.
Lawyer
A lawyer is your main defense tool. You can hire one yourself, "by agreement", or use the services of a free lawyer provided by the state. An appointed lawyer is not just a formality, many of them defend in good faith, and the famous "pocket investigator's lawyers" have long been a thing of the past, since they are appointed not on the investigator's call, but according to the queue established in the bar Association. Often, a designated defense lawyer will be enough, especially if your strategy is to admit guilt. In this case, it will be more effective to spend money not on a lawyer, but on compensation for damages.
If you realize that you are charged with more than you have committed, hire a lawyer under the agreement. A good defender is expensive, but it will never guarantee you evasion of responsibility and will even warn you about it directly. Of course, if it is really a professional, and not a marketing lawyer who will imitate a stormy activity and make promises for your money. Unfortunately, there are no ratings of lawyers ' professionalism, so you have to rely on word of mouth, previous experience in the right category of cases, and reputation.
GENERAL TIPS ON HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE INVESTIGATION
Do not conflict with representatives of the state, they always have more powers. This is especially true for the investigator, because this is the only employee who can really influence the fate of a criminal case in the range from "not proven" to "maximum term and worst conditions in a temporary detention center and in the zone".
Chain of command is an important point. How many times have I seen a suspect pay a bitter price for his cheeky behavior with a female investigator? Conversely, if the investigator sees respect and understanding on your part, they will probably respond in kind.
It is also not worth giving in to the investigation, because their job is to send criminal cases with as serious elements as possible to the court in order to improve statistics.
The optimal behavior model is to negotiate. For example, an investigator often forgets to acquaint a suspect with their rights before starting an investigative action. It is much better not to write a complaint, but to mention it with understanding, ask him to meet you halfway, mitigate the guilt. They wouldn't have satisfied your complaint anyway, but the investigator's location will come in handy.
The investigator is also a human being and strives to do his job fairly. If you see that the investigator is torn between conscience and the demands of his superiors to improve the indicators of severity and the number of trains, show your best sides. Let them know that you just made a mistake, but now you are ready to become another "Kevin Mitnick" and teach young hackers not to make mistakes and not to break the law.
MEMO
- Crimes on the Internet are subject to more severe penalties.
- The police know how to wait, and criminals lose their vigilance.
- If the smell of burning — immediately stop the dark business.
- Each violation is a separate crime.
- Watch for signs that you're being developed.
- They can dig under you without opening a criminal case.
- Consult a lawyer about tactics and arrange an urgent departure in advance.
- Being a witness doesn't guarantee your safety.
- An accomplice can set you up.
- Do not resist arrest.
- Don't call your partner-in-crime, call your lawyer or relatives.
- Ask your relatives to bring you warm clothes for the isolation ward.
- Check the time of detention and sign the Protocol.
- A special order, confession, and confession will reduce your sentence.
- Don't admit to anything you didn't do, even under duress.
- A free lawyer isn't always useless.
- A paid lawyer is not always good, so choose based on reviews.
- Do not conflict with the investigator, but negotiate with him!
