Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

17 September 2009

LORD ADVOCATE SAYS THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL IN THE FIGHT

AGAINST TERRORISM AND SERIOUS CRIME

Every police officer and prosecutor needs to be aware of the international dimensions in the fight against terrorism and serious crime, the Lord Advocate, the Right Honourable Elish Angiolini QC, said today.

In a keynote speech to the Senior Investigating Officers Conference, Mrs Angiolini said international co-operation was a priority not only for specialists in the field, but for all those involved in keeping our communities safe.

The Lord Advocate said:

"Terrorism is global, but our recent experience is also that it is local. Our response must be resolute and determined, and it must also be co-operative, creative and innovative in ensuring that we investigate and prosecute even in the most complex of cross border investigations.

"We must be both strategic and practical. Of strategic importance in the context of terrorism and our response is the need to ensure that the law is sufficiently flexible to keep pace with crime which truly respects no border or frontier. No one is immune from terrorist attack and the likelihood is that future attacks will cross borders in the UK and between the UK and Europe and the United States. We need to prepare on this basis."

She added: "There is a real need for specialisation in the context of our international work and investigations. We have, as prosecutors, a long history of specialism in this context. The International Co-operation Unit based in the Crown Office is firmly established and is the specialist Unit which leads in extradition and mutual legal assistance work.

"Although there is a need for specialism in international work it is also important that all investigators and prosecutors have an awareness of it - and in that sense it is important to mainstream it too. I very much welcome the renewed focus by the Scottish Police Forces on international liaison officers and in COPFS that is mirrored by a network of Area specialists who work closely with the International Co-operation Unit in relation to extradition and mutual legal assistance matters.

"In the context of counter-terrorism, we need to ensure that prosecutors and police officers have the skill and the necessary expertise to deal both with the initial handling of a terrorist incident and with the investigation and prosecution which will follow. To this end, COPFS has established a Counter-Terrorism Team - a network of prosecutors drawn from around our 11 areas which will be involved in our response to any terrorist incident in Scotland, and will support the work of our National Casework Division which will prepare any prosecution which is to take place in Scotland.

"NCD also has a team which specialises in international legal work dedicated to the recovery of evidence in NCD cases such as drug trafficking, money laundering and criminal confiscation cases which require the restraint of international proceeds of crime."

The Lord Advocate also paid tribute to the co-operation of police and prosecutors across the UK when investigating the terrorist conspiracy to attack Glasgow and London in 2007.

"I was delighted with the level of co-operation which took place between police forces north and south of the border and between prosecutors in Scotland and in England," she said. "I am also pleased that a UK Prosecutors Group has been established to ensure that lines of communication are clear and that we continue to assist each other in relation to terrorist offending."

Ends

Notes to editors:

• Recent prosecutions with significant cross-border co-operation have included: the prosecution in England of Bilal Abdullah for his part in the terror attacks on London and Glasgow Airport; the prosecution of Marek Harcar in Glasgow for the murder of Moira Jones; and the prosecution of Strachan, Rennie and Others in Edinburgh for offences related to child sexual abuse.
• In May the Lord Advocate signed a counter-terrorism protocol with the Attorney General for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The protocol agrees the broad principles and considerations to be adopted in any future terrorist case which spans jurisdictions in Scotland and England and Wales.

Contact: Communications 0844 561 3988 or 4263

Internet:
www.copfs.gov.uk