USING RESULTS OF STING OPERATION IN CRIMINAL CASES PROVING

В статье рассматриваются проблемные вопросы, связанные с использованием в качестве доказательств результатов оперативного эксперимента. Предлагается отказаться от проведения оперативного эксперимента по инициативе оперативных подразделений и допустить его проведение исключительно в рамках рассмотрения сообщения о преступлении, на основании поручения следователя Следственного комитета в порядке статьи 144 УПК РФ. The article deals with problematic issues associated with the use of the results of an operational experiment as evidence. It is proposed to refuse to conduct an operational experiment on the initiative of operational units and allow it to be conducted exclusively within the framework of considering a report on a crime, on the basis of an order from an investigator of the Investigative Committee in accordance with Article 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.

STING Operation at the ER/Golgi Interface

DNA is present in the nucleus and mitochondria of eukaryotic cells. There are, however, certain instances in which DNA emerges in the cytosol. The two major sources of cytosolic DNA are self DNA that is leaked out from the nucleus or mitochondria, and non-self DNA from DNA viruses. The cytosolic DNA triggers the host immune response. Recent studies have identified two key molecules, cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) synthase (cGAS) and stimulator of interferon genes (STING) in this immune response. STING is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein. After STING binding to cGAMP, STING exits the ER and translocates to the Golgi, where STING triggers the type I interferon- and proinflammatory responses through the activation of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB). STING also activates other cellular responses including cell senescence, autophagy, and cell death. In this review, we focus on emerging issues regarding the regulation of STING by membrane traffic, with a particular focus on the retrograde membrane traffic from the Golgi to the ER. The retrograde membrane traffic is recently shown by us and others to be critical for silencing the STING signaling pathway and the defect in this traffic underlies the pathogenesis of the COPA syndrome, a monogenic autoinflammatory disease caused by missense mutations of coatomer protein complex subunit α (COP-α).

Consolidation

This chapter continues the chronological history of the Soviet hippie movement. It turns its gaze specifically on Moscow, where Iurii Burakov (alias Solntse) was instrumental in creating a loose association of hippies and their friends, which soon became known as the sistema. It explores the personality of Iura, who left a rich archive of auto-biographical writing, revealing a thoughtful young man steeped in his Soviet socialization, which left him with a strong desire for self-improvement and a collective mission. With greater organization on the part of the hippies, the state also mustered a stronger response. Both developments culminated in the 1 June 1971 demonstration, organized by Iura Burakov as a collective action against the American war in Vietnam, but which de facto was used by the authorities as a sting operation to capture the data of Moscow hippies and their like-minded peers. The demonstration resulted in the arrest of hundreds of hippies, possibly more than a thousand. Iura Burakov was left with the tarnished reputation of a potential traitor, entangled in the web of KGB tactics, which were first directed at destroying, later at co-opting the sistema.

It’s Just Not Cricket!

The world of cricket was stunned by the ‘spot-fixing’ allegations against three Pakistani cricket team players during one of the most important games in the cricket calendar for the nation in the summer of 2010. News of the World, a British tabloid, conducted a sting operation against Pakistani players, trapping them into deliberately bowling no-balls during a match against England, an illegal practice known as spot-fixing. The ‘bookies’ take bets for such events happening during a game, and gamblers can make substantial sums of money if they have foreknowledge. The players were offered payments for these actions to be performed during the game, which may or may not impact the eventual outcome of the game but can entail serious monetary benefits for the bookies and their allies. The discovery of these events raised several questions regarding the governance and ethics of the sport. The ICC and British courts subsequently found the trio guilty of corruption and were banned and imprisoned. This case aims to analyse theories and concepts in ethics using this well-known incident in cricket as the context.

Problematic issues and practice of using string operations based on the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (on the example of case law on corruption)

Usage of sting operation in law enforcement for documenting the facts of bribery and commercial bribery faces practical issues substantiated by imperfection of the current federal legislation on operational search activity. There is no legislatively secured definition of string operations along with regulation of the procedure for its conduct. The indicated gaps generate contradictory situations pertaining to the assessment of lawful actions of law enforcement agencies during string operationss. The departmental procedure for conducting operational search activity is insufficient for verification and assessment of performance of operational units by investigators, prosecutors, judges, and lawyers. Work on further amendments to the Federal Law “On Operational Search Activity” is relevant and reasonable. Currently, case law on this issue is quite ambiguous due to such formulations as the defense failed to prove the instance of provocation, and that there were no substantial violations or misuse in during conduct of operational search activity. For ensuring legal guarantees for persons against whom is conducted the string operations, it is essential to address the question of availability and quality of professional legal aid during the conduct of operational search activity, due to the fact that all evidence obtained by the operatives in the absence of lawyer and strictly regulated procedures of the conduct of operational search activity, often become key evidence in a case, which are hard to argue in court.

Assessing police topological efficiency in a major sting operation on the dark web

The networked nature of criminals using the dark web is poorly understood and infrequently studied, mostly due to a lack of data. Rarer still are studies on the topological effectiveness of police interventions. Between 2014 and 2016, the Brazilian Federal Police raided a child pornography ring acting inside the dark web. With these data, we build a topic-view network and compare network disruption strategies with the real police work. Only 7.4% of the forum users share relevant content, and the topological features of this core differ markedly from other clandestine networks. Approximately 60% of the core users need to be targeted to fully break the network connectivity, while the real effect of the arrests was similar to random failure. Despite this topological robustness, the overall “viewership network” was still well disrupted by the arrests, because only 10 users contributed to almost 1/3 of the total post views and 8 of these were apprehended. Moreover, the users who were arrested provided a total of 60% of the viewed content. These results indicate that for similar online systems, aiming at the users that concentrate the views may lead to more efficient police interventions than focusing on the overall connectivity.