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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 required profile in the authorities. In fact, this is not so. I served in the preliminary investigation bodies (investigative committee, Ministry of Internal Affairs) for seven years 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 lot if you have come to the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Let's hope you are reading this article out of curiosity, and not out of urgent need!
TYPES OF CRIMES
Crimes in the IT sphere are very diverse. I will highlight the main ones that we encounter almost every day.
Theft using information technology
This category includes fraud using phishing, theft of funds from accounts, including karting.
Crimes in the field of illegal drug trafficking
Soon ten years have passed since the appearance of the illegal Silk Road marketplace, and since then the fight against anonymous trading platforms has not subsided all over 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 are closed every year - these are huge numbers; and after all, you can easily serve a quarter of a century in prison for selling drugs in the Russian Federation!
Purchase of special means
This and the next point are called "people's articles", and here's why. The law enforcement system loves statistics: the more people are held accountable, the better - bonuses, awards, and employee titles depend on it.
Several years ago, there was a bug in the legislation that made it possible to hold "geeks" who buy mobile phones, GPS trackers, and micro cameras that are not licensed in the Russian Federation accountable for purchasing means for covertly obtaining information.
Internet extremism
Everyone has heard of prison terms for "memes" or "reposts". Now this article is not so fiercely used, and yet hundreds of people have already received their own, albeit suspended, but prison terms and convictions.
Creation, distribution of malware or unauthorized access to computer information
This is a real hacker article, and quite rare. The less common the crime, 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
This is the article that torrent lovers run into: downloaded and forgot to delete - consider that you are already committing a crime. Caught malware and handed over your PC to a botnet? They will come for you.
In our agencies, they "identify by IP" without any jokes. Anyone caught in this way will most likely not be a malicious hacker, but an innocent fan of cracked programs. Nevertheless, the matter will not go without confiscating the equipment.
THE INTERNET AGGRAVES I would like
to especially note that according to the Criminal Code, fraud, theft, and illegal drug trafficking via the Internet entail more severe sanctions than the same crimes committed without the use of information technology.
Cybercrimes are more difficult to solve, which is why they were recently "aggravated" - now these offenses are serious and especially serious. So for stealing two thousand rubles from a bag pocket, you will sit on a "recognizance not to leave" during the preliminary investigation and get off with a suspended sentence, and if you stole two thousand from a bank card account, you can easily be arrested and get a very real sentence of up to ten years.
TIME IS AGAINST YOU
If you have crossed the line of the law (either through inattention or on purpose), then most likely they will not come for you either tomorrow or the day after. Even operational units are burdened with bureaucratic requirements and do not always live up to their name and act promptly.
In addition, all textbooks on operational investigative activities recommend not to rush, but to thoroughly entrench yourself in evidence. If you catch the offender too early, then all your efforts may go down the drain: there will not be enough evidence and you will have to let him go.
Law enforcement officers are not always smarter than the criminal, but they know how to wait. I have come across cases where cybercriminals were developed for more than a year. Sooner or later, the offender will lose vigilance and make an obvious mistake. Then you can immediately charge him with a combination of crimes. After all, each theft or other action is a separate crime, and it is always more profitable for the authorities to charge a person with 10-20 crimes than with one.
HOW CAN LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES FIND OUT ABOUT YOU?
The first "lead" can come from anywhere: informants, provider data, some analytical results of traffic or a citizen's report of an illegal act committed against them.
By what signs can you understand that you are "under surveillance"? The main tool is intuition. But there are also more objective signs.
If you are really doing something illegal, you may still have a chance to stop in time. However, if the law enforcement officers have started openly questioning your neighbors or relatives, it means that your development is approaching the final stage and there is already material to be checked, which they are preparing to transfer to the investigator to initiate a criminal case.
CHECKING BEFORE INITIATION OF A CRIMINAL CASE
Before initiating a criminal case, law enforcement agencies review the material of the check. If such material exists, it means that law enforcement agencies already have information about a possible crime.
One of the tactics is to collect all the evidence at this stage so that the investigation of the criminal case does not drag on. Sometimes, after reviewing the material of the check, the investigator only has to formalize the criminal case and send it to court.
The trick is that the check lasts up to 30 days, then the employee issues a formal decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case, the prosecutor cancels this decision and the check period begins anew. Thus, it is possible to examine the investigation materials and search for evidence for a long time: I have seen investigation materials from five years ago, and this is not at all uncommon.
A criminal case cannot be extended forever. Investigators strive to investigate it within two months. Only cases with a large public resonance are allowed to be investigated for more than a year.
A number of investigative actions can be carried out even within the framework of an investigation:
Inspection
It is impossible to conduct a search without initiating a criminal case, but if there are obvious traces of a crime in your apartment, then everything necessary can be done as part of a regular inspection of the crime scene - and even against your will. An inspection against your will will still have to be legalized post factum through the court so that the seized evidence is considered legal. However, investigators take such a step only if they have cast-iron grounds, and the courts in most cases agree to legalize such actions.
Also, if the circumstances do not tolerate delay, even a search can be carried out without prior permission from the court and legalized later.
How is an inspection of a home different from a search? In both cases, the action can take place against your will and be accompanied by the seizure of things, but according to the law, the difference lies in the purposes. But there are no clear boundaries here either.
In practice, they tend to do inspections "softer", they do not turn everything inside out, but simply examine the place. Nevertheless, even during an inspection, officers can search anywhere and for anything.
Interview
As part of the check, you can be called in for an interview (not an interrogation!). You are allowed to take a lawyer with you to the interview. This is not mandatory, but it is important to realistically assess the risks. It is possible that a criminal case will be opened against you immediately after the interview and your problems will suddenly take a serious turn.
In any case, arrange with a good lawyer so that he is ready to urgently come to you. If you are detained, you will not be able to leave the law enforcement agency building on your own.
CRIMINAL CASE
If a criminal case is opened against you, you will, of course, find out about it right away. Most likely, the investigator will not even inform you by mail, but in his office, officially inviting you to the investigative actions.
But there is a nuance - a criminal case can also be opened against an unidentified person. The investigation may not have enough evidence, or the criminal has not yet been identified. Or maybe you have already been informally "identified", it is just that the investigator uses such a trick to conduct operational-search and investigative activities while you remain in the dark.
Scenarios for interaction with the investigation
Scenario one: you learned that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person. You personally are not affected by the active actions of the authorities, but you took a real part in the crime (if you did not, then there is nothing to worry about, I have not heard of innocent people being imprisoned specifically for cybercrimes).
Scenario two: you learned that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person, and you are involved in inactive investigative actions (interrogations as a witness, searches while maintaining the status of a witness, etc.); in this scenario, you will have fewer rights than as a suspect, which simplifies the investigation.
The third scenario: when a criminal case has been initiated against you or you have been interrogated as a suspect (these events are equivalent - in both 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 may 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 found out that something is being started against you, even if these are verification measures, you must stop any illegal activity as soon as possible and pull the white hat down tighter, once and for all going over 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 - we have already discussed.
Interrogation
The second stage begins soon - this is interrogation. During the preliminary investigation, he grants you a criminal procedural status: witness, suspect, accused.
Each of these statuses implies its own rights and obligations within the framework of a specific criminal case, you can read about them in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
If the crime is not serious, you will be summoned for questioning, a preventive measure not related to imprisonment will be chosen (a written undertaking not to leave and proper behavior), and you will be summoned by phone to other investigative measures.
In the case of a serious crime, you can be detained, even before the initiation of a criminal case. The officers of the operational services will catch you anywhere except your home (here, after all, you need a court decision and an open criminal case), take you to the investigator's office and draw up a detention protocol.
Detention
The officers can approach you at any time, even when you are calmly walking down the street. They will introduce themselves and say that you are detained. It is better not to resist, because any bruise on the body of an officer is a criminal offense.
You need to call your relatives or a lawyer, but do it without aggression, otherwise your phone will be immediately confiscated during the search.
You will be brought to the investigator, and he will draw up a detention report. The presence of a lawyer during detention is not essential. You cannot influence the detention anyway, if it is legal. And it is legal in three exceptional cases:
The detention report must be signed, since the investigator's note "refused to sign" will have a negative impact when the criminal case is considered by the court.
Check that the time of detention in the report matches the time of actual detention. From this moment, 48 hours are counted, during which the investigator must go to court with a motion for arrest and prepare materials proving why deprivation of liberty is necessary for an objective investigation of the criminal case.
When detaining, the investigator is obliged to let you make a phone call, use this right wisely. Do not call accomplices, because your entire conversation will be heard by employees (and they will be able to track the call), and inventing a verbal code on the fly is a bad idea.
It is better to call relatives so that they can bring you bed linen and warm clothes as soon as possible so that you do not freeze in the detention center. Investigators will meet you halfway and wait, because then it will be much more difficult to transfer things to the detention center.
Search
At the early stages of the investigation, an inspection of the crime scene or a search is mandatory, in which at least two witnesses must participate. Any items of interest to the investigation will be searched for and seized. You will be prohibited from leaving the search area. At the end, the officers will draw up a search report, you will be able to read it and make a photocopy.
If they want to disconnect and take away your equipment - be it a hard drive or an entire PC - an IT expert (a civilian or a specialist from the forensic center) must be present during the search. An operative officer, even if he is from Department "K", cannot replace such a specialist.
Expertise
If you are a suspect or a witness, then you will have to undergo expert examinations.
Expertise can be of different types: from computer, to phonoscopic, fingerprinting, biological. It all depends on the objects being examined. In any case, the suspect is necessarily familiar with the expert examinations. And the witness - only when samples were directly seized from him.
Other investigative actions
Charge
Finally, when the investigation has formed a classification of your actions, you will be charged. You can agree with the charge, partially agree or disagree. At this stage, you will definitely be interrogated again - this time as an accused, to dot the "i's" and cross the "t's" and understand your attitude to the criminal prosecution (do you repent or not) and the final position on your act, with which you will appear before the court.
The final part of the preliminary investigation
You will definitely be given all the materials of the criminal case for review, about which a report will be drawn up. You will be able to study all the evidence collected by the investigator and, together with the lawyer, choose the final line of defense for the court. In the review report, you can petition to choose the judicial proceedings (for example, in a special procedure or by a jury).
At this stage, the investigative actions are completed. Then the criminal case will be sent to the prosecutor's office for approval, and then to the court.
Admitting guilt, turning yourself in and special procedure
It is up to you to decide whether to admit guilt or not. The main rule: never admit to something you did not do. If you are subjected to violence or threats (“confess, or we will beat you”), threaten to write a statement to the Investigative Committee. The threats will most likely end there, since “beating out” testimony is a crime on the part of the officers and entails serious sanctions.
When you have actually committed a crime, denying guilt is the worst option if the criminal case goes to court. The court will give the maximum term, and even imprisonment.
On the contrary, criminal proceedings are very humane to 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 judicial fine. As a result, you will not have a criminal record. This is an innovation in the legislation. There are nuances in the application of a judicial fine, read more in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
What else will help? Turning 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 sentence. Even if you wrote a confession, and then denied it during the entire investigation and you were found guilty in court, your confession will help you out.
If the conditions for applying a court fine are not met, there is a special procedure. Did you admit your guilt completely? Ask for a special procedure. Then the court does not consider the case on the merits, but only decides on sanctions. In most cases, the special procedure will entail a suspended sentence or (if you also confessed) 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 defense attorney provided by the state. An appointed lawyer is not just a formality, many of them provide conscientious defense, and the famous “pocket lawyers of the investigator” are a thing of the past, since they are appointed not by a call from the investigator, but according to the queue established in the bar association. Often, an appointed defense attorney 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 understand that you are accused of more than you have committed, hire a lawyer by agreement. A good defense attorney is expensive, but will never guarantee you escaping responsibility and will even warn you about it directly. Of course, if this is a real professional, and not a marketing lawyer who will imitate vigorous activity and make promises for your money. Unfortunately, there are no ratings of the professionalism of lawyers, you have to rely on word of mouth, previous experience in the required category of cases and reputation.
GENERAL ADVICE ON HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE INVESTIGATION
Do not conflict with government representatives, they always have more authority. 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 the worst conditions in a temporary detention facility and in the zone”.
Subordination is an important point. How many times have I seen a suspect pay dearly for his impudent behavior with a female investigator. And vice versa, seeing respect and understanding from you, the investigator will probably respond in kind.
You should not give in to the investigation either, because their job is to send criminal cases with the most serious offenses possible to court to improve statistics.
The optimal model of behavior is to negotiate. For example, an investigator often forgets to familiarize a suspect with his 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, to mitigate the guilt. Your complaint would not have been satisfied anyway, but the investigator's favor will come in handy.
The investigator is also a person and strives to do his job fairly. If you see that the investigator is torn between his conscience and the demands of his superiors to improve the indicators for the severity and number of offenses, show your best side. Let him understand that you just made a mistake, but now you are ready to become the next "Kevin Mitnick" and teach young hackers not to make mistakes and not to break the law.
REMINDER
Let's hope you are reading this article out of curiosity, and not out of urgent need!
TYPES OF CRIMES
Crimes in the IT sphere are very diverse. I will highlight the main ones that we encounter almost every day.
Theft using information technology
This category includes fraud using phishing, theft of funds from accounts, including karting.
Crimes in the field of illegal drug trafficking
Soon ten years have passed since the appearance of the illegal Silk Road marketplace, and since then the fight against anonymous trading platforms has not subsided all over 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 are closed every year - these are huge numbers; and after all, you can easily serve a quarter of a century in prison for selling drugs in the Russian Federation!
Purchase of special means
This and the next point are called "people's articles", and here's why. The law enforcement system loves statistics: the more people are held accountable, the better - bonuses, awards, and employee titles depend on it.
Several years ago, there was a bug in the legislation that made it possible to hold "geeks" who buy mobile phones, GPS trackers, and micro cameras that are not licensed in the Russian Federation accountable for purchasing means for covertly obtaining information.
Internet extremism
Everyone has heard of prison terms for "memes" or "reposts". Now this article is not so fiercely used, and yet hundreds of people have already received their own, albeit suspended, but prison terms and convictions.
Creation, distribution of malware or unauthorized access to computer information
This is a real hacker article, and quite rare. The less common the crime, 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
This is the article that torrent lovers run into: downloaded and forgot to delete - consider that you are already committing a crime. Caught malware and handed over your PC to a botnet? They will come for you.
In our agencies, they "identify by IP" without any jokes. Anyone caught in this way will most likely not be a malicious hacker, but an innocent fan of cracked programs. Nevertheless, the matter will not go without confiscating the equipment.
THE INTERNET AGGRAVES I would like
to especially note that according to the Criminal Code, fraud, theft, and illegal drug trafficking via the Internet entail more severe sanctions than the same crimes committed without the use of information technology.
Cybercrimes are more difficult to solve, which is why they were recently "aggravated" - now these offenses are serious and especially serious. So for stealing two thousand rubles from a bag pocket, you will sit on a "recognizance not to leave" during the preliminary investigation and get off with a suspended sentence, and if you stole two thousand from a bank card account, you can easily be arrested and get a very real sentence of up to ten years.
TIME IS AGAINST YOU
If you have crossed the line of the law (either through inattention or on purpose), then most likely they will not come for you either tomorrow or the day after. Even operational units are burdened with bureaucratic requirements and do not always live up to their name and act promptly.
In addition, all textbooks on operational investigative activities recommend not to rush, but to thoroughly entrench yourself in evidence. If you catch the offender too early, then all your efforts may go down the drain: there will not be enough evidence and you will have to let him go.
Law enforcement officers are not always smarter than the criminal, but they know how to wait. I have come across cases where cybercriminals were developed for more than a year. Sooner or later, the offender will lose vigilance and make an obvious mistake. Then you can immediately charge him with a combination of crimes. After all, each theft or other action is a separate crime, and it is always more profitable for the authorities to charge a person with 10-20 crimes than with one.
HOW CAN LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES FIND OUT ABOUT YOU?
The first "lead" can come from anywhere: informants, provider data, some analytical results of traffic or a citizen's report of an illegal act committed against them.
By what signs can you understand that you are "under surveillance"? The main tool is intuition. But there are also more objective signs.
- Your phone has started acting strangely; I suspect you are being tapped.
- “New friends” appear who are interested in your activities.
- Strangers ask your neighbors about you - they could be law enforcement officers.
If you are really doing something illegal, you may still have a chance to stop in time. However, if the law enforcement officers have started openly questioning your neighbors or relatives, it means that your development is approaching the final stage and there is already material to be checked, which they are preparing to transfer to the investigator to initiate a criminal case.
CHECKING BEFORE INITIATION OF A CRIMINAL CASE
Before initiating a criminal case, law enforcement agencies review the material of the check. If such material exists, it means that law enforcement agencies already have information about a possible crime.
One of the tactics is to collect all the evidence at this stage so that the investigation of the criminal case does not drag on. Sometimes, after reviewing the material of the check, the investigator only has to formalize the criminal case and send it to court.
The trick is that the check lasts up to 30 days, then the employee issues a formal decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case, the prosecutor cancels this decision and the check period begins anew. Thus, it is possible to examine the investigation materials and search for evidence for a long time: I have seen investigation materials from five years ago, and this is not at all uncommon.
A criminal case cannot be extended forever. Investigators strive to investigate it within two months. Only cases with a large public resonance are allowed to be investigated for more than a year.
A number of investigative actions can be carried out even within the framework of an investigation:
- inspections of the scene of the incident (for example, your apartment), during which equipment may be seized;
- survey (this is not an investigative action in the full sense, but the interrogation will be based on the survey testimony; also, if the article is suddenly under the jurisdiction of the investigative body, then the survey can be evidence);
- expertise;
- obtaining samples of voice, handwriting, fingerprints and palm prints, genotype - for comparative research;
- requests to providers, banks, mobile companies and other organizations;
- assignments to other services, including foreign ones, through Interpol.
Inspection
It is impossible to conduct a search without initiating a criminal case, but if there are obvious traces of a crime in your apartment, then everything necessary can be done as part of a regular inspection of the crime scene - and even against your will. An inspection against your will will still have to be legalized post factum through the court so that the seized evidence is considered legal. However, investigators take such a step only if they have cast-iron grounds, and the courts in most cases agree to legalize such actions.
Also, if the circumstances do not tolerate delay, even a search can be carried out without prior permission from the court and legalized later.
How is an inspection of a home different from a search? In both cases, the action can take place against your will and be accompanied by the seizure of things, but according to the law, the difference lies in the purposes. But there are no clear boundaries here either.
In practice, they tend to do inspections "softer", they do not turn everything inside out, but simply examine the place. Nevertheless, even during an inspection, officers can search anywhere and for anything.
Interview
As part of the check, you can be called in for an interview (not an interrogation!). You are allowed to take a lawyer with you to the interview. This is not mandatory, but it is important to realistically assess the risks. It is possible that a criminal case will be opened against you immediately after the interview and your problems will suddenly take a serious turn.
In any case, arrange with a good lawyer so that he is ready to urgently come to you. If you are detained, you will not be able to leave the law enforcement agency building on your own.
CRIMINAL CASE
If a criminal case is opened against you, you will, of course, find out about it right away. Most likely, the investigator will not even inform you by mail, but in his office, officially inviting you to the investigative actions.
But there is a nuance - a criminal case can also be opened against an unidentified person. The investigation may not have enough evidence, or the criminal has not yet been identified. Or maybe you have already been informally "identified", it is just that the investigator uses such a trick to conduct operational-search and investigative activities while you remain in the dark.
Scenarios for interaction with the investigation
Scenario one: you learned that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person. You personally are not affected by the active actions of the authorities, but you took a real part in the crime (if you did not, then there is nothing to worry about, I have not heard of innocent people being imprisoned specifically for cybercrimes).
Scenario two: you learned that a criminal case is being investigated against an unidentified person, and you are involved in inactive investigative actions (interrogations as a witness, searches while maintaining the status of a witness, etc.); in this scenario, you will have fewer rights than as a suspect, which simplifies the investigation.
The third scenario: when a criminal case has been initiated against you or you have been interrogated as a suspect (these events are equivalent - in both 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 may 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 found out that something is being started against you, even if these are verification measures, you must stop any illegal activity as soon as possible and pull the white hat down tighter, once and for all going over 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 - we have already discussed.
Interrogation
The second stage begins soon - this is interrogation. During the preliminary investigation, he grants you a criminal procedural status: witness, suspect, accused.
Each of these statuses implies its own rights and obligations within the framework of a specific criminal case, you can read about them in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
If the crime is not serious, you will be summoned for questioning, a preventive measure not related to imprisonment will be chosen (a written undertaking not to leave and proper behavior), and you will be summoned by phone to other investigative measures.
In the case of a serious crime, you can be detained, even before the initiation of a criminal case. The officers of the operational services will catch you anywhere except your home (here, after all, you need a court decision and an open criminal case), take you to the investigator's office and draw up a detention protocol.
Detention
The officers can approach you at any time, even when you are calmly walking down the street. They will introduce themselves and say that you are detained. It is better not to resist, because any bruise on the body of an officer is a criminal offense.
You need to call your relatives or a lawyer, but do it without aggression, otherwise your phone will be immediately confiscated during the search.
You will be brought to the investigator, and he will draw up a detention report. The presence of a lawyer during detention is not essential. You cannot influence the detention anyway, if it is 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 has been 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 his clothes, with him or in his home.
The detention report must be signed, since the investigator's note "refused to sign" will have a negative impact when the criminal case is considered by the court.
Check that the time of detention in the report matches the time of actual detention. From this moment, 48 hours are counted, during which the investigator must go to court with a motion for arrest and prepare materials proving why deprivation of liberty is necessary for an objective investigation of the criminal case.
When detaining, the investigator is obliged to let you make a phone call, use this right wisely. Do not call accomplices, because your entire conversation will be heard by employees (and they will be able to track the call), and inventing a verbal code on the fly is a bad idea.
It is better to call relatives so that they can bring you bed linen and warm clothes as soon as possible so that you do not freeze in the detention center. Investigators will meet you halfway and wait, because then it will be much more difficult to transfer things to the detention center.
Search
At the early stages of the investigation, an inspection of the crime scene or a search is mandatory, in which at least two witnesses must participate. Any items of interest to the investigation will be searched for and seized. You will be prohibited from leaving the search area. At the end, the officers will draw up a search report, you will be able to read it and make a photocopy.
If they want to disconnect and take away your equipment - be it a hard drive or an entire PC - an IT expert (a civilian or a specialist from the forensic center) must be present during the search. An operative officer, even if he is from Department "K", cannot replace such a specialist.
Expertise
If you are a suspect or a witness, then you will have to undergo expert examinations.
Expertise can be of different types: from computer, to phonoscopic, fingerprinting, biological. It all depends on the objects being examined. In any case, the suspect is necessarily familiar with the expert examinations. And the witness - only when samples were directly seized from him.
Other investigative actions
- Giving testimony on the spot: under video or photo recording, you will tell and show what you did and how you did it right at the crime scene.
- Investigative experiment: employees will recreate the conditions under which the crime was committed to ensure that their or your assumptions are realistic.
- Confrontation. Even if you have built an ideal technical defense, refuse to admit guilt, and the investigation has no objective evidence, your partner can always give you up. 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 confrontation of versions, the purpose of which is to establish the truth.
Charge
Finally, when the investigation has formed a classification of your actions, you will be charged. You can agree with the charge, partially agree or disagree. At this stage, you will definitely be interrogated again - this time as an accused, to dot the "i's" and cross the "t's" and understand your attitude to the criminal prosecution (do you repent or not) and the final position on your act, with which you will appear before the court.
The final part of the preliminary investigation
You will definitely be given all the materials of the criminal case for review, about which a report will be drawn up. You will be able to study all the evidence collected by the investigator and, together with the lawyer, choose the final line of defense for the court. In the review report, you can petition to choose the judicial proceedings (for example, in a special procedure or by a jury).
At this stage, the investigative actions are completed. Then the criminal case will be sent to the prosecutor's office for approval, and then to the court.
Admitting guilt, turning yourself in and special procedure
It is up to you to decide whether to admit guilt or not. The main rule: never admit to something you did not do. If you are subjected to violence or threats (“confess, or we will beat you”), threaten to write a statement to the Investigative Committee. The threats will most likely end there, since “beating out” testimony is a crime on the part of the officers and entails serious sanctions.
When you have actually committed a crime, denying guilt is the worst option if the criminal case goes to court. The court will give the maximum term, and even imprisonment.
On the contrary, criminal proceedings are very humane to 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 judicial fine. As a result, you will not have a criminal record. This is an innovation in the legislation. There are nuances in the application of a judicial fine, read more in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
What else will help? Turning 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 sentence. Even if you wrote a confession, and then denied it during the entire investigation and you were found guilty in court, your confession will help you out.
If the conditions for applying a court fine are not met, there is a special procedure. Did you admit your guilt completely? Ask for a special procedure. Then the court does not consider the case on the merits, but only decides on sanctions. In most cases, the special procedure will entail a suspended sentence or (if you also confessed) 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 defense attorney provided by the state. An appointed lawyer is not just a formality, many of them provide conscientious defense, and the famous “pocket lawyers of the investigator” are a thing of the past, since they are appointed not by a call from the investigator, but according to the queue established in the bar association. Often, an appointed defense attorney 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 understand that you are accused of more than you have committed, hire a lawyer by agreement. A good defense attorney is expensive, but will never guarantee you escaping responsibility and will even warn you about it directly. Of course, if this is a real professional, and not a marketing lawyer who will imitate vigorous activity and make promises for your money. Unfortunately, there are no ratings of the professionalism of lawyers, you have to rely on word of mouth, previous experience in the required category of cases and reputation.
GENERAL ADVICE ON HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE INVESTIGATION
Do not conflict with government representatives, they always have more authority. 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 the worst conditions in a temporary detention facility and in the zone”.
Subordination is an important point. How many times have I seen a suspect pay dearly for his impudent behavior with a female investigator. And vice versa, seeing respect and understanding from you, the investigator will probably respond in kind.
You should not give in to the investigation either, because their job is to send criminal cases with the most serious offenses possible to court to improve statistics.
The optimal model of behavior is to negotiate. For example, an investigator often forgets to familiarize a suspect with his 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, to mitigate the guilt. Your complaint would not have been satisfied anyway, but the investigator's favor will come in handy.
The investigator is also a person and strives to do his job fairly. If you see that the investigator is torn between his conscience and the demands of his superiors to improve the indicators for the severity and number of offenses, show your best side. Let him understand that you just made a mistake, but now you are ready to become the next "Kevin Mitnick" and teach young hackers not to make mistakes and not to break the law.
REMINDER
- Internet crimes carry harsher penalties.
- The police know how to wait, but criminals lose their vigilance.
- If something smells burnt, stop your dark deeds immediately.
- Each violation is a separate crime.
- Watch for signs that you are being developed.
- They can dig under you without initiating a criminal case.
- Consult with a lawyer about tactics and arrange an urgent visit in advance.
- Being a witness does not guarantee your safety.
- An accomplice may set you up.
- Do not resist when arrested.
- Don't call your accomplice, 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 report.
- A special procedure, confession and turning yourself in will reduce your sentence.
- Don't confess to something you didn't do, even under pressure.
- A free lawyer is not always useless.
- A paid lawyer is not always good, choose based on reviews.
- Don't conflict with the investigator, but negotiate with him!
