The federal prosecutor's office ( nl, federaal parket, french: parquet fédéral, german: föderale Staatsanwaltschaft) of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

is a prosecutor's office with

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Jur ...

over the entire Belgian territory, unlike the other prosecutor's offices which are associated to a particular court or

arrondissement An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissements' ...

judicial district A judicial district or legal district denotes the territorial area for which a legal court (usually a district court) has jurisdiction. By region Europe Austria In texts concerning Austria, "judicial district" (german: Gerichtsbezirk) refers ...

"). The office was created in 2002 to be able to act more efficiently against certain forms of crime that transcend the borders of individual judicial districts, such as

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. In this capacity, the office has the power to carry out prosecutions in all Belgian courts with criminal jurisdiction. The office fulfills its duties under the authority of the

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

, and is bound by the prosecutorial guidelines of the College of prosecutors-general. The federal prosecutor's office is located in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. The office consists of around thirty federal magistrates ("assistant prosecutors") and is led by the federal prosecutor. As of 2020, the incumbent federal prosecutor is Frédéric Van Leeuw. The federal magistrates and federal prosecutor are not permanent members of the office; they are members of the other Belgian prosecutor's offices who are appointed for a five-year federal mandate.

Duties

The federal prosecutor's office has four main duties: * To initiate criminal investigations and prosecute cases that belong to its jurisdiction, in conjunction with the other prosecutor's offices. These are cases that exceed the jurisdiction of the other prosecutor's offices or that meet certain criteria, such as cases involving human trafficking, terrorism, crimes related to

nuclear material Nuclear material refers to the metals uranium, plutonium, and thorium, in any form, according to the IAEA. This is differentiated further into "source material", consisting of natural and depleted uranium, and "special fissionable material", con ...

transnational organized crime Transnational organized crime (TOC) is organized crime coordinated transnational crime, across national borders, involving groups or markets of individuals working in more than one country to plan and execute illegal business ventures. In ord ...

. In some cases, the federal prosecutor's office has the exclusive power of prosecution, such as in cases involving

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

. * To ensure the coordination of investigations or prosecutions by the other prosecutor's offices, by providing support or by centralising multiple concurrent investigations at one office. * To facilitate international judicial cooperation, by providing support with regards to

mutual legal assistance A mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) is an agreement between two or more countries for the purpose of gathering and exchanging information in an effort to enforce public or criminal laws. A mutual legal assistance request is commonly used to fo ...

, and by acting as a central contact point for foreign and international judicial authorities (such as

Eurojust Eurojust is an agency of the European Union (EU) dealing with judicial co-operation in criminal matters among agencies of the member states. It is seated in The Hague, Netherlands. Established in 2002, it was created to improve handling of serio ...

). * To supervise the functioning of the

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

References

External links

* {{In lang, nl Judiciary of Belgium Federal departments and agencies of Belgium Law enforcement in Belgium