By Ghadeer Ghloum

KUWAIT: The United States Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) organized a workshop with the Kuwait Public Prosecution titled “The Task Force Model of Investigation and Prosecution”. The workshop took place at the Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies on Monday. The goal of the workshop is to enhance the capabilities of prosecutors in combating organizational crime, including terrorism, terror financing and money laundering.

During the workshop, Adnan Al-Jasir, advisor and deputy director of the Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies, said this workshop is part of the annual program that was agreed upon in cooperation with OPDAT. The importance of this workshop lies in the urgent need to enhance cooperation at national, regional and international levels to combat terrorism and its motives. All societies and their various institutions are responsible for combating and confronting this problem.

While security institutions have commitments, intellectual, scientific, media and educational institutions also have a major responsibility to build correct concepts and sound human values and immunize society against deviant ideas. “Your interaction and contribution to the success of this workshop embodies the spirit of solidarity and partnership in preventing terrorism and confronting it in all its forms and shapes, as everyone has a stake in confronting this phenomenon, which has become a threat to the manifestations of life, human existence and the sanctity of property,” Jasir said.

Deputy US Chief of Mission James Holtsnider expressed his pride and satisfaction to introduce the US attorney for the southern district of Texas, Alamdar Hamdani. Holtsnider said Hamdani is one of the best in the US with decades of experience across all aspects of the US legal system. He stressed this training is going to focus on the task force module, which is the module that gained prominence in the US in the 1940s and has expanded over many decades, and is very useful for information sharing.

“I am the 24th attorney of the southern district of Texas. I am the top prosecutor in the southern district of Texas that encompasses 44,000 square miles (15,000 km) with 9 million people. The biggest city is Houston, which is a multicultural city that has everything from healthcare to the oil industry,” Hamdani said. He said he had the privilege of being in the Department of Justice for 15 years, where he worked in national and security matters and public and official corruption matters. Hamdani also handled drug cases and human smuggling and trafficking cases. “I am especially excited to be here in Kuwait to share what I know with you and learn from you,” he said.