Questionnaire Belgium
I.6 What influence can the prosecution service apply?
The district prosecutor has the right – and even
the duty – to develop and to apply a real policy vis-à-vis the
(judicial) police under his direct supervision. Consistent with the directives
of the Minister of Justice in relation to the investigation and prosecution
policy, the district prosecutor has to decide which offences have to get
priority within his judicial district (sect. 28ter CCP). Worth mentioning is
the system of autonomous disposition of certain cases by the police (sect.
28bis CCP). In this system, the police have a certain degree of freedom in
registering and investigating a limited number of offences, such as e.g.
threats, vandalism, libel, certain types of theft and so forth. However, the
concept autonomous is misleading since the public prosecution service remains
in command of the whole investigation. Furthermore, it should be stressed that
this concept does not imply that agreements are made between the prosecution
service and the police on the influx of criminal cases concerning specific
types of crime. In Belgium
