INTERPOL’s forensic report on FARC computers and hardware seized by Colombia to be officially released on Thursday 15 May

14 May 2008

INTERPOL will formally present the public report and findings on its forensic examination of seized FARC computers and hardware to the Colombian authorities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Calle 10 number 5-51, Bogota, at 12:00 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT) on Thursday 15 May, immediately followed by a press conference.

Under the terms of the agreement signed with Colombia in Bogota on Wednesday 12 March, INTERPOL’s assistance included the deployment of an Incident Response Team (IRT) to Bogota to obtain mirror images of the content data of the three laptop computers, three USB thumb keys and two external hard disks in order to carry out an independent computer forensic technical examination of that content data.

The remit of the IRT was exclusively computer forensic analysis in nature and did not include the analysis of any content of the word documents, videos, images or other material retrieved from the seized computers and hardware. 

Following the formal handover to Colombia, the public report including its key findings will also be published on INTERPOL’s website, www.interpol.int.

INTERPOL has not discussed and will not discuss its findings or the content of the report before they are presented to the Colombian authorities. Comments in the media as to the nature of INTERPOL’s findings before these are handed over on 15 May therefore remain speculative.

INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble, Chairman of INTERPOL's Computer Forensic Experts Group, Bernhard Otupal, Director of Colombia’s Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), Maria del Pilar Hurtado Afanador, and Director General of the Colombian National Police, Brigadier General Oscar Adolfo Naranjo Trujillo, will take part in the press conference in Bogota immediately following the handover of the report.

All enquiries regarding accreditation and access to the report handover and press conference should be directed to the Chief Press Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Giovanni Celis tel: +57 1 566 20 08 or email: Hector.celis@cancilleria.gov.co