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Tapping Into the Supernatural to Crack Crimes01 November 2008, The Moscow TimesWritten by Natalya Krainovahttp://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/372107.htmThe company's owner had locked her staff's salaries in the safe and gone home. Thenext morning, a secretary opened the office to discover that it had beenransacked, the safe opened and the money missing.Suspicion fell on an elderly employee, but he denied wrongdoing. The owner decidedto consult a psychic. Under hypnosis, the elderly employee admitted that he wasthe thief. His confession was recorded and used by police as evidence.The incident, as told by Moscow psychic and hypnotist Darya Mironova, is notunique. Law enforcement officials are actively working with paranormal experts tosolve crimes, a little-discussed practice that goes back decades.Law enforcement agencies, perhaps understandably, are reluctant to talk about theuse of paranormal experts. But in a rare revelation, Investigative Committee chiefAlexander Bastrykin said earlier this year that investigators had used hypnotistsin several recent cases, including the bombing of a Moscow-St. Petersburg train.In fact, law enforcement agencies are so keen to find people with paranormalpowers that they have employed Mikhail Vinogradov, a prominent forensicpsychiatrist, to watch "Bitva Ekstrasensov," or "Psychics Competition," on TNTtelevision for possible recruits, Vinogradov said."If I personally like someone, I direct them... to the special services,"Vinogradov said. "If a person works out, they get him involved."He said he has recommended less than 10 contestants, and he refused to elaborateon which agencies he was assisting, citing the sensitivity of the issue."There are about 20 really powerful psychics in Russia, and they all wearepaulettes," Vinogradov said, referring to their membership in law enforcementagencies.Vinogradov said the KGB first engaged him 40 years ago, when as a medical studenthe worked out a method to predict how people would act in emergencies based ontheir appearances.To test his skills, the KGB asked Vinogradov to detect spies at diplomaticreceptions in embassies a few times, and his guesses proved accurate, Vinogradovsaid.Mironova said she has assisted the police for a decade and helped them draw up apsychological portrait of the so-called Bittsevsky Maniac when his name was notyet known. Serial killer Alexander Pichushkin, dubbed the Bittsevsky Maniacbecause he killed most of his victims in Moscow's Bittsevsky Park, was sentencedlast year to life in prison for 48 murders.The Federal Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service asked thatquestions for this article be submitted in writing.Questions sent in July had not been answered by Friday.
 
The Investigative Committee rejected a written inquiry, saying it did not want to"hamper investigations."Bastrykin, the Investigative Committee chief, said in March that hypnotists hadhelped investigate the August 2007 bombing of the Nevsky Express train, whichinjured 60 people. "Witnesses under hypnosis remembered the numbers on the licenseplate of the car used by the criminals," Bastrykin said, RIA-Novosti reported.Bastrykin also said hypnotists were involved in an investigation into the Marchkillings of two Dagestani journalists, Gadzhi Abashilov and Ilyas Shurpayev.The head of the Investigative Committee's forensic department, Yury Lekanov, saidforensic experts started involving psychics in their investigations about 20 yearsago, Noviye Izvestia reported.The first state laboratory to study paranormal activities was created under Sovietleader Josef Stalin, Vinogradov said.The law does not prohibit involving psychics or hypnotists in investigations, butquestions have been raised about the credibility of evidence obtained throughtheir counsel."Prosecutors and courts should not consider testimony given under hypnosis asevidence because they cannot be sure that the idea was not planted into theperson's mind," said Lev Ponomaryov, a leading human rights campaigner and formerState Duma deputy.Incidentally, the elderly employee hypnotized by Mironova in the safe robberynever went on trial. The company owner ultimately forgave him and deducted thestolen amount from his paycheck, Mironova said.The reliability of psychics' predictions is very low, according to studiesconducted by the Emergency Situations Ministry in the 1990s, Minister SergeiShoigu said in a 2005 interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta. The ministry conductedthe studies after being flooded with offers from psychics who claimed that theycould predict catastrophes.Among the psychics was Grigory Grabovoi, who in July this year was sentenced to 11years in prison on fraud charges after promising to resurrect children killed inthe Beslan school attack in 2004. The ministry said Grabovoi had examinedairplanes for hidden defects during the government studies.Western law enforcement agencies are cautious about the use of paranormal experts.In Germany, hypnosis is only allowed when questioning witnesses, and even thenrestrictions apply, said Rudolf Egg, director of the Criminological Center, astate-sponsored think tank in Wiesbaden."I can indeed imagine that someone remembers more under hypnosis, but the questionis whether this can be used later in court," he said.In Britain, police do not actively seek the help of psychics duringinvestigations, but all information received from a psychic who feels he is "ableto assist... is given due consideration," Scotland Yard spokeswoman Kate Southernsaid in an e-mailed statement.Southern said, however, that she was unaware of any investigations that progressed
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