“48 points on the skull”: criminologist Kustov told what helped detain the bomber Serebryakov in Turkey

«Wear a mask if you want, or grow a beard if you want. It doesn't matter»

Yevgeny Serebryakov, suspected of blowing up a Toyota Land Cruiser in northern Moscow, which injured two people, has been detained in Turkey. At 5.37 a.m., he took off from Vnukovo Airport on a Pegasus flight to Bodrum, where he was detained by police units in the province of Mugla. Thanks to this, the bomber was quickly caught, forensic scientist, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, and Senior Justice Advisor Anatoly Mikhailovich Kustov told MK.

Photo: Still from video

The bomber was caught on all surveillance cameras. His progress was tracked. It was established for certain that Serebryakov flew from Moscow to Turkey.

— Both our special services and Interpol were involved, — says Anatoly Mikhailovich Kustov. — There were records, and then it was not difficult to find him. We are all registered. We have passports with photographs. The bomber also had a foreign passport. The facial recognition system at the airport helped, thanks to which the skull is identified. A person has characteristic features: 48 points that are inherent to him from birth. They are compared by the system, only increasing in size. And that's all.

As the forensic scientist says, these characteristic points do not change throughout life, unless the skull itself is changed.

— Do you want — wear a mask if you want — grow a beard. None of this matters. These points remain unchanged until the person leaves for another world. Based on them, the full face is restored. And then comes identification. Video recordings, computer programs, artificial intelligence, and a neural network are used. Everything is identified.

Anatoly Kustov says that four seconds is enough.

— Passengers at the airport make some stops. Their passport is checked, they go through the control system, and so on. Enough time.

Employees of the Russian division of Interpol contacted their Turkish colleagues. We gave them operational information. The bomber was found using CCTV footage. Everyone worked very quickly.

— Interpol has — international criminal police organization — single database. The suspect was found, detained, identified, everything coincided. Now the investigation will be sorted out.