29 MAY 2002

SWEDEN / INFO

Organisation of the Swedish Public Prosecution Service especially designed for international co-operation.

The Prosecutor General’s Programme against organised transnational crime establishes on a long-term basis how the Swedish Public Prosecution Service should prioritise its work and concentrate its activities on fighting such crime.

As of 1 January 2001, there is an International Prosecution Unit, in each of every of the six regional prosecution authority especiallydesigned for international co-operation in criminal matters and to combat international organised crime. A Chief Prosecutor heads each international unit. The prosecutors working in those units are specialists with great experience of fighting crime with international links. There is also a prosecutor under training at each office in order to ensure the long-term supply of competence resources.

The Programme emphasises the need for special prosecution units specialised in organised crime with international links. The working task relates to all crime as regards international organised crime for example such as narcotic crime, trafficking in human beings, weapon or goods and money laundering. The programme also stresses the need for further development of both national collaboration and international co-operation, further training programmes and central co-ordination.

New functions for co-ordination of international legal assistance and development work together with prosecution and fighting crime in this area is now built up within the Prosecutor-General’s office. The main aim is that the prosecutors working in this field shall be given the opportunity to exchange experiences and to co-ordinate their operative works in a flexible and efficient manner. In this way, the Public Prosecution Service’s total resources applied in the field can be developed and directed towards important issues and investigations.

Regarding the international co-operation the International Units have established a close contact with the Swedish national member in Eurojust and the European Judicial Network. The Swedish Public Prosecution Service has ten contact point of the European Judicial Network (EJN) and six of those are prosecutors at the international local units.

The prosecutors are now taking part in a special training programme in a number of different areas. This will include training within the fields of law related to organised crime but also reinforced work such as regards international legal assistance, language training and in other countries legal systems. The training also include taking part in the international development work in this area. The chief prosecutors at the international offices are given substantial opportunities to work with an international perspective.

For the forthcoming year the development will mainly be concentrated on setting up objectives and new forms for follow-up of the prosecutor activity in those units and to set up guidelines for the international judicial co-operation. The role of the prosecutor during the pre-trial phase  – the prosecutor conduct the crime investigation  - and the relation to the police (investigators) is another issues that will be taken into consideration for further development.

Code of Ethics on preparation

On behalf of the Prosecutor General a special committee has presented a draft of a Code of Ethics and a set of standards for prosecutors. The draft report is based on both national and international Codes of Conduct or Ethics for the public service and as far as it concerns Codes of Ethics or Standards for prosecutors the report reefers to the Recommendation 2000 (19).

This draft is now circulated and discussed within the prosecution service and a final version will be approved later on this year. The draft of the Code of Ethics is concentrated to the following areas:

-                 the professional conduct of the prosecutor

-                 the prosecutors relation to the suspect,

-                 the prosecutors relation to the victim

-                 the prosecutors relation to the public and media

-                 issues related to the pre trial investigation, the decision making on prosecution issues and the trial

-                 and finally the private role for a prosecutor.