E/CN.4/2002/77/Add.2 page 22 76. A visit to Jaw prison gave the delegation the opportunity to meet military personnel and police officers convicted by the courts who, following their dismissal from the forces, had been transferred to a civilian prison to serve their sentences. Courts martial, it was told, are held in camera and the Disciplinary Tribunal (the police court) is presided over by the officer who conducts the case for the prosecution before the civilian courts. 77. The composition of these courts and the impossibility of appeal to an independent court mean that they do not conform to relevant international standards. The attention of the authorities has been drawn to the need to review these provisions and bring them into conformity with international norms. The delegation was informed that a review of the security services regulations was now on the agenda and there were plans to make police officers subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. D. Reform of the administration of criminal justice 78. The Charter adopted by referendum committed the authorities to complete the establishment of the judicial institutions announced in the Constitution, and offered greater protection of liberties by specifying that arrest, police custody, detention and all other restrictions on individual liberties may be imposed only in accordance with the law and under judicial supervision. Accordingly, the Directorate for Legal Affairs began to draw up a draft code of criminal procedure which is now being finalized. The draft makes substantial changes, increasing judicial supervision of the police and circumscribing the role hitherto played by the services of the Ministry of the Interior. The reform reorganizes the administration of criminal justice and announces the establishment of a public prosecutor’s office, a judicial police corps and a judge responsible for the execution of sentences. These concepts have been borrowed from the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure, based on the Romano-Germanic legal system. 1. Reorganization of prosecution and investigative bodies 79. This question has been dealt with in the draft code of criminal procedure referred to above: the proposed model looks towards the civil law system. The draft (a copy of which was given to the delegation by the authorities) announces the establishment of a public prosecutor’s office under the authority of the Ministry of Justice, whose personnel will have the status of judicial officers. The public prosecutors will have a monopoly on public prosecutions and will oversee the new judicial police corps which will assist them in their inquiries, help them investigate cases and operate under their authority. 80. Public prosecutors will also see to the execution of judicial decisions and supervise prisons and places of detention (which will still be run by the Ministry of the Interior). In order to do so they will have recourse to a judge for the execution of sentences, whose powers are clearly outlined in the draft. The new reform also makes provision for an investigating judge to whom criminal or difficult cases may optionally be referred for investigation. Given that injured parties may not bring actions for damages, the decision to refer a case to the investigating judge rests with the prosecutor alone: he is the real investigator and the lynchpin of the system. As the key body in the preparatory phase, the public prosecutor’s office is invested with all powers. It may delegate its powers, order inquiries, make arrests, conduct searches and seizures, remand persons in pre-trial detention after formally charging them, and prepare case files.

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