Deputy Communications Minister with participants of the training programme.
A select group of judges and prosecutors is undergoing a four-day capacity building programme in advance judicial training on cybercrime and electronic evidence.
The training programme, which is organised by the Council of Europe, in partnership with the National Communication Authority (NCA), is a continuation of an earlier one for the judges and prosecutors in April this year.
The main purpose of the training is to educate a group of trainers who will be able to further transfer their knowledge and skills to their peers for efficient determination of cases involving cybercrime and electronic evidence.
At the end of the four-day training, the judges and the prosecutors, are expected to be equipped with knowledge relating to recent trends in technology and cybercrime, darknets and virtual currencies, some key aspects of the Budapest convention, procedural powers and case study on international cooperation.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Communications, Vincent Sowah Odotei, indicated that Ghana is currently experiencing its share of the global cybercrime phenomenon which has become one of the most common but pervasive crimes in the country.
He said the training programme is line with government’s vision to improve Ghana’s cyber security through training and retraining of officials in the criminal justice system.
According to Mr. Odotei, “The criminal justice system has a national mandate to respond to all criminal cases, including cybercrime cases and therefore equipping prosecutors, investigators and judges with the knowledge and skills to investigate and prosecute cybercrime cases is one of the priority areas that require urgent support.”
He said that although Ghana is one of the states in the sub-region with the finest cybercrime legislations, lack of training and technologies to support forensic examination of digital devices and network environment and the capacity to operationalise such a brilliant law remains a challenge.
“Therefore, this specialised course will in no doubt contribute to our collective national efforts to build capacity within the criminal justice system as part of the country’s efforts to address cybercrime challenges,” Mr. Odote indicated.
Director-General of the NCA, Joe Anokye, on his part, noted that the authority has established a cyber-security department, which directly reports to the Director General of Communications and a computer emergency response team which has an oversight responsibility over the communication sector.
He said the authority is also in the process of establishing a forensic lab which will greatly enhance the fight against cybercrime in the country.
The project manager for GLACY+, the facilitators of the training programme, Manuel Almeida, stated that Ghana is the first country outside Europe to benefit from the advance training.
He said all the materials are available for a successful implementation of the programme to intensify the fight against cybercrime.
Justice Denis Adjei, Director of the Justice Training Institute, added that cybercrime is an emerging area and stressed the need to build the capacity of judges, prosecutors and investigators to properly handle cases relating to cyber security and electronic evidence.
He encouraged the participants to take the training seriously in order to interpret the law on cybercrime.
By Gibril Abdul Razak