Zeghmati: “Expanding Prerogatives Of Military Judicial Police Is A Prerequisite”

Amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure: New provisions are necessary to preserve public funds and extend the powers of the Judicial Police of the Military Services, according to the Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals, Belkacem Zeghmati who affirmed on Sunday in Algiers that the draft law amending the Code of Criminal Procedure aimed at “preserving public funds”, through facilitating the initiation of public proceedings and “removing the constraints that hindered the Judicial Police in the performance of its missions”.
In his presentation to the Legal Commission of the National People’s Assembly (APN), Mr Zeghmati stated that the purpose of the amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure was to “consolidate and strengthen the legal framework for the fight against crime, through the repeal of provisions with negative effects on the initiation and exercise of public prosecution by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on the one hand, and those that hinder the Judicial Police in the performance of its tasks on the other hand”.
To this end, the draft law proposes the repeal of articles 6a, 15a, 15a 1 and 15a 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to the conditions for initiating public proceedings for crimes involving public funds, as well as the powers and duties of judicial police officers in the military security services.
The text also proposes the amendment of article 207 on the control by the Indictment Chamber of the activity of judicial police officers, in particular by reviewing the measures put in place under the Act of March 2017 on the authorization of judicial police officers to effectively exercise the powers related to this capacity.
As for the Initiation of public proceedings for crimes related to public funds,The measures provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure of July 2015 introduced the condition of a prior complaint by the social organs of the economic enterprise for the initiation of public proceedings against the managers of economic enterprises in which the State holds all the capital or mixed capital, for management offences involving the theft, misappropriation, degradation or loss of public or private funds.
For Mr Zeghmati, the text of the said article, which was intended as a kind of protection for the managers of economic companies, protected from legal proceedings that could be unfounded given the nature of their work, had “very negative” repercussions, on the initiation of public proceedings for crimes related to public money.
These provisions, the Minister added, constitute an “obstacle” that hinders the activity of the courts in general and the public prosecutor’s office in particular, because of the position and actions of representatives of the social bodies of companies, who “refrain from filing a complaint” against the perpetrators of criminal acts, arguing that the acts under investigation do not qualify as criminal acts, which they consider, in good faith or knowingly, to be simple “management errors that do not amount to crimes”, whereas this falls within the exclusive prerogatives of the judge.
As this position is widespread among the representatives of these companies, the provisions included in Article 6a constitute “a real legal obstacle which has a negative impact on the performance of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judicial Police and reduces their effectiveness in combating economic crime”, added the justice Minister, considering that the repeal of this article and the return to the legal rules and principles established for investigations and prosecutions “is capable of strengthening the protection of public funds and the fight against financial crimes”.