Judicial Investigation Department

Founded in 1973, the Judicial Investigation Department (Spanish, Organismo de Investigación Judicial, OIJ) is a dependency of the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica. Since October 2015, its director has been Walter Espinoza Espinoza.[1]

The Judicial Investigation Department is a subsidiary body of the Criminal Courts of Public Prosecutions and serves as an auxiliary entity of the Criminal Courts and the Public Ministry, to guarantee the impartiality, honesty and objectivity of criminal investigations. Its Organic Law stipulates that the OIJ will act on their own initiative–by denunciation or by order of competent authority in the investigation of crimes of public action–in the identification and preventive apprehension of the alleged offenders. It also aims to collect, secure and scientifically manage the evidence and other background information necessary for the investigation.

Likewise, the OIJ will act in the crimes of private action by order of competent authority after receiving the claim or accusation of the affected party.

Structure

General Directorate

The General Directorate is responsible for directing and coordinating all the overall activities of the OIJ.

General Secretariat

The General Secretariat coordinates everything related to the budgetary system of transport and radio in addition to assigning the distribution of researchers in different sections.

Criminal Investigations Department

The Criminal Investigation Department is responsible for searching and collecting the necessary set of tests and evidence, as well as making the pertinent inquiries in the correct clarification of each case. It is composed of the following:


Its primary function is to carry out the autopsies, reconnaissance, and other examinations in respective cases that require them. Evacuate medical consultations forensics applied to the Agency.

It is composed of several different sections:

  • Clinic Medical
  • Forensic Pathology
  • Psychiatry and Psychology
  • Forensic Medicine Labor
  • Criminal Objectives Deposit
  • Criminal Museum
  • Canine Unit

Account in addition to the Chair in Medicine of the University of Costa Rica as a teacher. And the Medico-Legal Council and believes that rules on medico-legal aspects that occurred in judicial proceedings when requested by the court. The Department of Forensic Medicine is at the Forensic Complex located in San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia.

Forensic Science Laboratory

The Forensic Science Laboratory, located at the Forensic Complex in San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia, technically analyzes each of the evidence gathered during investigations, including the following:

Criticism

The OIJ was criticized for its illegal surveillance of Diario Extra journalist Manuel Estrada, who had written an article critical of the OIJ. In a victory for press freedom and citizen journalists, Judge Ernesto Jinesta Lobo of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court censured the OIJ for conducting illegal wiretaps to identify his sources for the article. In addition to “traditional” journalists, Judge Lobo indicated that citizen journalists (those who “regularly contribute” to reporting or public opinion) also deserve to be shielded from prosecutorial abuses of surveillance.[2] Further criticism includes automatic dismissal of investigations related to intellectual property crimes up to 2011.[3]

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See also

References
  1. "Nuevo director del OIJ Wálter Espinoza promete golpear el crimen organizado" (in Spanish). Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  2. International Press Institute (March 25, 2014). "Costa Rican court rules surveillance of journalist is unconstitutional". IFEX.
  3. Colegio de Abogados. "Ministerio Público Cambió Política de Persecución Penal para los Delitos de la Propiedad Intelectual" (PDF). Retrieved May 21, 2014.
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