ABU DHABI // The Abu Dhabi Police forensic section will train judges to help them better understand technical evidence in the courtroom, police said yesterday.
"We have new updated procedures and we expanded our lab and services, and [judges] need to be aware of that so they can solve the case in a correct way," said Lt Col Nawal al Katheeri, the manager of the forensic chemistry branch.
Dr al Katheeri said in the coming weeks, police and legal officials would discuss the challenges they faced, then set up a plan for the training programmes.
Dr Ann Priston, the president of the Forensic Science Society in the UK, said a lack of understanding of forensic work and crime scene investigation was a universal problem. "You can't teach judges and lawyers how forensics work, or forensic officials how judges and lawyers work. All we can do is create awareness and teach each other our strengths and weaknesses," she said.
Anwar Siddiqi, a forensic expert with Abu Dhabi Police, said exchange training between forensic and legal officials was needed.
"The relationship between forensics and the jury is very close; we can't work without each other, but we don't know anything about one another," Mr Siddiqi said.
"The idea is that we as forensic scientists are asked by jury and prosecutors to speak in simple language, because they are not forensic experts so they cannot understand our technical terms."
He said that, for instance, scientists could repeat the information a couple of times to simplify it. He suggested that legal courses should also be given to forensic and CSI officials. "I would also like to know the legal steps - what will happen as a result of my findings."
Mr Siddiqi said he usually asked the lawyers with whom he worked about the legal process, and they provided him with the information he needed.
A criminal court judge recently asked a forensic expert – called to testify whether a defendant had taken drugs when he was outside the country, or after he arrived – to document his analysis so judges could refer to his expertise in similar cases.
“Could you please write everything you told us today on a piece of paper so you do not have to come every time we have such a case?” Chief Justice Saeed Abdul Baseer asked the expert.
The Abu Dhabi forensic lab is also looking into going international by 2030, providing services to other countries if needed.
“This is a long-term goal. We haven’t started working on it yet,” Dr al Katheeri said.
“It’ll be like the FBI [in the US]: their services are used across the world.”
She said the department was focused now on getting international accreditation by next year and becoming a full forensic service by 2014, including such systems as databases for DNA and ballistics identification.
The discussion came on the last day of the CSI conference, held by Abu Dhabi Police and the Forensics Science Society.
hdajani@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Hassan Hassan
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
