The prosecution service function within the dutch criminal justice system

Coping with Overloaded Criminal Justice Systems: The Rise of Prosecutorial Power Across Europe

Volumn , Issue , 2006, Pages 237-256

  Blom, Martine ^a   Smit, Paul ^a  

^a Ministerie van Justitie   (Netherlands)

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EID: 84892324692     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-33963-2_7     Document Type: Chapter

References (22)

1. Although they are not mentioned anymore in the criminal code as infractions they still are called "punishable acts" in the Mulder law.
2. Recently, since 2003, there are also guidelines issued from the PPS on how to prioritise investigations or even in some circumstances not to investigate at all.
3. The exception are the prosecutors at the Supreme Court. They are independent and do not also fall under the authority of the Minister of Justice. And they are appointed for life.
4. There is also a geographical correspondence with the police regions: each arrondissement consists of one or two police regions.
5. There are some minor exceptions. In some courts (e.g. a military court) there could be a lay judge, but always as part of a bench where the majority consists of professional judges.
6. Contrary to what the name suggests, this judge has nothing to do with the police. It is a normal judge handling most cases, except for the more serious cases.
7. Until recently this was 6 months. Judges are appointed for life (prosecutors are not). In addition, the second option (four years experience as staff member) is not possible for judges.
8. After the requisitoir the defense lawyer, the prosecutor (again) and the suspected offender are given the opportunity to speak before the court.
9. But this will change in the near future! See Chapter 9.
10. The lower percentage for kantonzaken is due to the fact that for those cases policetransacties are used more.
11. The number of conditional disposals, where the condition was indeed met by the offender.
12. In a technical sense, there are also some conditional disposals which are not transacties. In table 1 these are included under "Other conditional disposals".
13. The total number of recorded crimes is somewhat higher: 1.4 million. This number includes also the "victimless" crimes, such as traffic offences, economic offences and drugs crimes.
14. Until 1/1/2004 a police-transactie was also possible for driving under influence (alcohol promillage between 0.53 and 0.80).
15. In 2002 about 97 % of all traffic offences were "Mulder-law" offences.
16. Actually, also other investigative agencies such as the FIOD (for fiscal fraud) can carry out these investigations. The role of the prosecution service however is the same as with police investigations.
17. There are some exceptions, e.g. in the case of an arrest by the police when caught redhanded. Deprivation of liberty can in this case last 6 hours, extended by 6 hours if necessary, after that a prosecutor decision is necessary.
18. Also the suspected offender can ask the examining magistrate to use some investigation measures, such as interviewing certain witnesses. This is, however, not a full preliminary judicial investigation.
19. But permission is needed from the examining magistrate. And a financial investigation is only possible for some (usually the more serious) crimes.
20. Of course, an investigation during trial only occurs in a minority of the cases, i.e. when the prosecutor decides to bring the case before a court.
21. Actually this can be done by everyone with an interest in the prosecution of the case. About 1500 appeals are made each year.
22. The Dutch parliament still has to decide on introduction of the law which makes this possible.