Scientific Police celebrates anniversary with a seminar on Criminal Investigation
The Scientific Police for Criminal Investigation (SPCI) celebrated its 2nd anniversary, on May 16th. During a ceremony held at the Auditorium of the Ministry of Social Solidarity, in Caicoli, Dili, officially took office the new Deputy of the National Director of SPCI, Adino Nunes Cabral, as well as other elements of the institution.
In his speech, the Minister of Justice, Ivo Valente, stated that the creation of SPCI was "fully justified to respond to the challenges facing the country. We must be prepared for new forms of crime, more sophisticated and organized, and that require an independent scientific and structured police, with highly specialised frameworks, technically well equipped, as can be seen in our laboratory of forensic science".
He went on to add that the work of that police body "would not be possible if they didn’t have a strong spirit of unity and mission, common to all personnel that integrates the SPCI, namely the special corps of the career of criminal investigation and the career of specialists. To all of them we must, together with the Timorese society, demonstrate our profound recognition".
Minister Ivo Valente commended the role played by the Justice Programme, from the cooperation delegated by the European Union in Portugal, through Camões - Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, IP, as it "so honours the European Union and the Portuguese Cooperation, as well as the other partners of this project, such as the General Directorate of the Justice Policy and, especially, the Judicial Police". 
Concluding, he stated: "how we respond to the needs of the citizen, will be the key to the success of the SPCI".
During the afternoon, ran the National SPCI Seminar, which had several interventions. The first was on "Government’s policy to strengthen criminal investigation in SPCI", from Minister Ivo Valente. This was followed by the intervention of the President of the Commission “A” of the National Parliament, on "Legislative policy in the organization of criminal investigation". The Prosecutor’s, Angelina Saldanha, intervention focused on the theme "Criminal investigation in the crimes of drug trafficking and money laundering"; the Commissioner for Anti-corruption, Adérito Tilman, on "The effectiveness and efficiency of criminal investigation in the crimes of corruption"; the Deputy Director of SPCI, Adino Nunes Cabral, focused on "Organized crime"; and the Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine of National Hospital Guido Valadares, Nilton Tilman, addressed "Criminal investigations and legal medicine".
The ceremony was presided by the Minister of State, Coordinator of State Administration Affairs and Justice, Dionísio Babo, and the Minister of Justice, Ivo Valente. Also attended the Minister of Defence, Cirilo Cristóvão, and the Minister of Interior, as well as senior representatives of the courts of Timor-Leste, such as the Court of Appeal, the Attorney-General's Office, the Anti- Corruption Commission, the Public Defender’s Office and the Civil Servants Commission, as well as diplomatic representatives and business people.
