Indictment

Charge (also called public action ) is ( in many states the prosecutor ) charged in a criminal case by the prosecution if the investigation undertaken, give the probable cause that a defendant has committed a criminal act.

The indictment is thus the beginning of a trial. It describes exactly the person of the accused. It describes the indictment set precisely the facts which the defendant is accused, and called the injured penal provision according to its terms. It also interrupts the current statute of limitations. In Germany and in most other constitutionally organized criminal justice systems, there is the so-called accusatorial tradition, according to which the prosecution uplifting authority may not be identical to the judgmental instance.

The written indictment is read ( trial ) by the prosecutor in its essential parts in the court date. It is the basis of the hearing against the accused. Only the facts described in it is the subject of this hearing. The court is not bound by the legal assessment of the accused life facts, which represents the prosecution in their charge. In a new point of law, the court must inform the defendant but.

If the court (that is, the facts of life ) over a prosecution allegation has finally decided (possibly also by acquittal ), this charge may not be made again to the contents of an indictment (Ne bis in idem ).

The indictment must therefore be the actual operation, the accused the defendant describing distinctive. In addition, it is intended to reproduce the relevant text of the law and cite the applicable rules, and specify the evidence and - except for prosecution for criminal court ( single judge at the district court ) - summed up the essential result of the investigation.

Unlike the court or tribunal ( the doubt ) must, in the rule of principle in dubio per duriore the Prosecution. For example, the auditor in the Swiss military criminal trial if they have sufficient grounds for suspicion of a crime or offense the process is not set itself (Art. 114 MSTP ).

In simpler procedures in which only a relatively small penalty is to be expected, the prosecution can replace the formal indictment by a penal request ( by a criminal mandate respectively). This shortens the litigation. It only comes to a hearing if the accused an opposition procedure against the fine.

No prosecutor is the representative of the public interest in administrative law.