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State Attorney (Israel)

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(Redirected from Praklitut Hamedinah)

The State Attorney office (Hebrew: פרקליטות המדינה, Praklitut Hamedinah) represents the State of Israel and the government authorities before the various courts and tribunals, at all levels. The State Attorney's Office is part of the executive branch of the State of Israel, and operates organizationally as part of the Ministry of Justice. The work of the State Attorney's Office covers many areas of law, including criminal, civil, constitutional and administrative, economic-fiscal, labor law, and international law. In the field of criminal law enforcement, the State Attorney's Office operates independently.

As of the end of 2022, the State Attorney's Office consists of 14 headquarters units and 13 district attorney's offices. It has 2,114 employees, including 1,163 attorneys, 385 interns, 267 administrative employees, 149 students, 104 national service members, and 49 investigators from the Police Internal Affairs Department. The State Attorney's Office is headed by the State Attorney, who has four deputies - the Deputy for Criminal Affairs, the Deputy for Civil Affairs, the Deputy for Special Affairs, and the Deputy for Economic Enforcement.

For the most part, it is the headquarters units that appear in the Supreme Court and the National Labor Court, and it is the district attorney's offices that appear in the Magistrate's and District Courts, the Family Court, the Regional Labor Court and other tribunals (such as: Parole Committees appointed under the Parole from Imprisonment Law, 5761–2001) and in exceptional cases also in other instances such as the Local Court, the Rabbinical Court and the Enforcement Service.

The prosecution as a prosecutor in criminal trials

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The Penal Code and other criminal laws, such as the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, establish criminal prohibitions, the violation of which will result in the filing of an indictment by the state against the violator. The Attorney General's Office, which represents the state, is the prosecutor in these trials. In the past, the prosecutor in criminal trials was the Attorney General. Since the mid-1970s, the prosecutor has been the State of Israel.

Cases of minor offences, tried in the Magistrate's Court, such as traffic offences, minor drug offences, and other offences for which the punishment is not severe, are handled by police prosecutors. These prosecutors, who are police officers, do not work in the prosecutor's office, and receive their certification from the Police Commissioner.

There are types of offences, such as offences against planning and building laws or offences against business licensing laws, or against environmental laws, in which the state is represented by prosecutors on behalf of local authorities or certain government ministries. These prosecutors are usually private law firms, which receive accreditation from the Attorney General. These offences are also usually minor offences. Likewise, in certain offences, a private individual may also file an indictment, called a "criminal complaint."

The prosecution's handling of a case sometimes begins at the stage when the police collect the evidence against the suspect, with advice to investigators and guidance on the conduct of the case, in order to ensure that the evidence collection is proper or that certain steps in the investigation, such as using an agent or providing state witness status, are legal. The prosecution then handles matters of detention and its extension from time to time. Subsequently, an indictment is filed by the prosecution, and a trial is conducted, which the prosecution accompanies until the sentence is handed down. If an appeal is filed, the prosecution also handles this. Appeals filed with the Supreme Court are handled by the State Attorney's Office, which is headquartered in Jerusalem. Other appeals are handled by the district attorneys. If the defendant is convicted of a crime and sentenced to a prison term, the Attorney General's Office also represents the state before the Parole Committee, which decides on his release due to good behaviour, and in prisoner petitions before the courts where these petitions are filed, concerning the conditions of imprisonment and the prisoner's rights.

The State Attorney's Office as the one who determines law enforcement policy

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One of the components of the State Attorney's work is the guidance of the attorneys working in the State Attorney's Office. These guidelines, which come in writing from the State Attorney to the District Attorneys and from them to the other attorneys, are collected into guidelines, which outline the policy of the State Attorney's Office. Since the State Attorney's Office serves as an accompanying and advisory body to the Israeli Police in criminal matters, the State Attorney's guidelines also influence police policy.

An example of such a policy being established by the State Attorney is Directive 2.5 of the Attorney General's Office, which establishes the "policy of the prosecution, in the prosecution of a prosecution witness or complainant who recanted his testimony to the police in court," and is implemented by the police according to the practical instruction numbered 30.300.226.

Another example is Directive No. 14.13 – Recording an Interrogation by an Interrogated Person[1], issued in 2013 and revoked in 2016. The directive turned a person’s legal permission to record a conversation in which he is participating into a prohibition when it comes to recording his police interrogation, due to the definition of the act as allegedly contrary to Section 3 of the Wiretapping Law, according to which “listening to and recording a conversation, even if they are done with the consent of one of the parties to the conversation – are prohibited, and are treated as wiretapping, if they are done for the purpose of committing an offence or an act of damage, or for the purpose of revealing matters that are between him and her and are personal matters and not for the purpose of a legal proceeding between spouses.”

The Structure of the State Attorney's Office

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The State Attorney's Office is divided into two: 14 headquarters units, most of which are located in Jerusalem, and which generally represent the state before the Supreme Court and are engaged in determining legal policy, and 13 district attorney's offices, which represent the state in criminal and civil lawsuits in other courts throughout the country[2][3]. The State Attorney's Office is headed by the State Attorney. He has four divisions: Criminal Matters, Civil Matters, Special Duties, and Economic Enforcement.

The State Attorney's Office has approximately 2,060 employees, including approximately 1,100 attorneys, approximately 260 administrative employees, approximately 45 investigators in the Police Investigations Department, approximately 375 interns, approximately 140 students, and approximately 105 servicemen and women.[3]

References

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  1. ^ State Attorney's Office, State Attorney's Office (October 6, 1999). "1.413הקלטת חקירה על-ידי נחקר" (PDF).
  2. ^ "Wayback Machine" (PDF). www.gov.il. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2025-02-23.
  3. ^ a b Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice (February 23, 2025). "About The Office of the State Attorney".
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