In order to overcome differences in legal systems, language barriers, as well as differences in the organization of law enforcement agencies of the world, each Interpol member country creates its national central bureau, which coordinates international police cooperation within the country. One of the main directions of each NCB is the support of criminal investigations at the request of partners.
The functions of the National Security Service in Ukraine are entrusted to the National Police. A separately defined unit (working unit) is responsible for:
- exchange of open and operational investigative information within Interpol;
- exchange of requests and information about crimes and criminals, wanted persons, objects, documents, surveillance of persons suspected of committing crimes, etc.;
- formation of a data bank on crimes and criminals, wanted persons, objects and documents;
- assistance to representatives of law enforcement agencies – partners, who need to carry out investigative and other measures in Ukraine.
For this purpose, Ukrbyuro receives information from law enforcement agencies, central and local bodies of the state executive power of Ukraine on issues within its competence, and also provides them with information received through Interpol.
Therefore, since by law only designated state law enforcement agencies of Ukraine can carry out ORD and conduct investigations, the working apparatus of the National Security Service is actually the hub through which the countries of the world (which, of course, are members of Interpol) carry out their work on the territory of Ukraine in terms of ensuring criminal proceedings .
What exactly is the subject of interaction can be understood from the reports on the results of the NCB. They are prepared every year by the head of the National Police, as required by law. We have requested such information, and it for the last years provided ddepartment of international police cooperation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
So, in 2021, at the request of foreign countries, in particular, the following work was carried out:
- 2,719 persons were identified;
- 307 DNA profiles were checked;
- 1004 dactylocards (fingerprints) of persons were checked;
- processed 726 reports of the State Border Service of Ukraine regarding the functioning of the Interpol data bank regarding stolen/lost travel documents;
- 1,983 persons were checked according to the records of the State Border Service of Ukraine;
- 405 subjects of foreign economic activity were checked;
- assistance was provided in the deportation (transit through Ukraine) of 19 people.
Also, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the reception of 112 convicted citizens of Ukraine for further serving their sentences on the territory of our country was organized:
- from Russia – 108 convicted persons;
- from Belarus – 3;
- from Slovakia – 1.
In the reverse direction, the flow is much smaller. For the whole year, only two convicted persons were transferred. Both belong to the Russian Federation. It is interesting that such a ratio of “import” to “export” took place in 2020 as well.
Also, a separate area of cooperation of law enforcement agencies is the identification of persons suspected of committing crimes, with the aim of their detention and subsequent extradition. We have already detailed considered this issue and named the most active partners in recent years.
Separately, we provide a list of states that are quite popular among persons in hiding, and from which extradition is difficult or impossible for various reasons. They traditionally include the USA, Great Britain, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Qatar. The participation of these countries in Interpol imposes on these countries the same obligations regarding the interaction of national central bureaus as on any other member state. According to the Department of International Police Cooperation, mutually beneficial cooperation also takes place here. Although not to the same extent as with neighboring countries.
Author: Volodymyr Bogatyr, lawyer, honored lawyer of Ukraine
