Usage of Veritaserum during Legal Hearings in the MoM?

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 188312

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "happyjoeysmiley" <happyjoeysmiley at ...> wrote:

> However, we don't get to see *anybody* deciding to use
> Veritaserum to know if the person being questioned is 
> saying the truth. Whether it is Crouch Jr. or Bagman 
> or Harry or Mrs Figg, they are interrogated the Muggle way.


zanooda:

Yeah, we were also wondering why no one used Veritaserum or the Pensieve to find out if Sirius Black was guilty or innocent :-). But, you know, I believe they just don't consider Veritaserum, Pensieve or even Legilimency reliable enough. There are ways to fight them: we know that Slughorn faked his memories, DD mentioned that there is an antidote to Veritaserum, and is there any need to remind what a good Occlumens can do (Snape :-))? It is even possible to resist the Imperius Curse (Harry)!

Of course, most of the wizards won't be able to use any of these methods, but still, they exist, and even a theoretical possibility to alter the result of an interrogation means that Veritaserum and Pensieve evidence shouldn't be considered proof enough, not officially, anyway. They are like our Muggle lie detectors - the results may be taken into consideration, but they still don't prove anything :-). JMO.