RAMALLAH, October 30, 2009 (WAFA)- Palestinian Prosecutors and Palestinian Civil Police (PCP) officers today completed a week-long study visit to Sweden which focused on improving the cooperation between the Prosecution and the Police in criminal investigations.
An EUPOL COPP press release said the study trip - in which five Palestinian Chief Prosecutors and five senior PCP crime investigators participated – is part of a long-term project initiated by EUPOL COPPS in June 2009: “In a Modern Criminal Justice System for Palestine, how do we improve cooperation and allocate powers in Criminal Investigations between the Public Prosecution and the PCP in the most effective way?”
Commenting on the project Head of the Rule of Law Section of EUPOL COPPS, Christoph Lukits, said: “Coordination and cooperation between the prosecution and the police, which is a challenge worldwide, is one of the keys to a properly functioning Criminal Justice System”.
The objective of the trip has been to show police officers and prosecutors examples of effective cooperation and division of powers between the two institutions in a modern European criminal justice system. Sweden is particularly suitable for this exercise since it has a Criminal Justice System that resembles that of the Palestinian Authority.
The following is summary of the activities: At the National Police Board in Stockholm the delegation discussed intelligence led policing, criminal intelligence, surveillance and handling informants; Over three days with the County Police and District Prosecution Office in Uppsala they followed a case step by step and learned, in the process, how and who leads particular criminal investigations; At the Uppsala District Court the trainees learned about the Swedish court system and at the Office of the Swedish Attorney General, organizational structure and tasks of an AGO were discussed; and Additional topics studied were documentation and storage of evidence.
EUPOL COPPS is a European Security and Defence Policy Mission made up of senior police officers, prosecutors, judges, prison directors, as well as defence lawyers and legal and human rights experts that support the whole of the Palestinian Criminal Justice System from beginning to end.
