Diversifying the Sources of Evidence in Terrorism Cases before Criminal Courts in (Post-)Conflict and High-Risk Situations The Role of the Military

A key component of global counterterrorism efforts since 2001 has been the promotion of effective criminal justice responses to terrorism that fully comply with the rule of law and international law. The ultimate aim of this approach is to end impunity for terrorist suspects by bringing them to justice. Yet bringing terrorist suspects to justice for the full scope of the crimes committed can be difficult. There is a proliferation of international, regional, and national initiatives trying to address the challenges regular law enforcement actors face, considering the (post-)conflict and high-risk circumstances in which collecting information that can serve as evidence in terrorism cases sometimes needs to take place. The scope of this chapter is limited to the role of the military in collecting such information for the purpose of terrorism cases before national civilian criminal courts. It will discuss a select number of legal and practical challenges that this topic engenders and provide recommendations to overcome these challenges. Our rule of thumb in this discussion is “as civilian as possible and only as military as needed,” whereas compliance with international law and the rule of law has been, is, and will be, our normative framework.