War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
Annex 1
X Solicitors
Dear Sirs
Thank you for contacting us about allegations of ..................... made against .....................
It is not possible from the information that you have provided for us to make a proper decision whether or not to investigate these matters. Therefore we are unable to take the matter further at this stage.
The purpose of this letter is to address another option that might be available to you, that is to say initiating a private prosecution.
This is not an option which would involve either the police or the Crown Prosecution Service, unless at some stage during the process you requested that the private prosecution be taken over by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in accordance with his discretion under Section 6 (2) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985. In a case such as this, that discretion would be exercised by the Counter Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service (the CPS).
In order for the CPS to consider whether to exercise that discretion, an individual must have already been charged and be facing proceedings in the magistrates' court. The CPS, at the time of such a request, will ask you to supply them with sufficient information to carry out a full review in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors. If you choose to make such a request after successfully commencing proceedings, CPS has three options:
- To take over the prosecution and proceed with it
- To take over the prosecution and discontinue it
- Not to take it over at all and leave you, as the private prosecutor, to continue with it.
Option 2 would be taken where there was clearly no case to answer, or the public interest factors against prosecuting clearly outweighed those in favour.
At any stage the CPS might ask us to re investigate the allegations or verify any of the information supplied in order to ensure that it is admissible, genuine and credible evidence. In those circumstances, we might need to come back to you for further information to assist us in our enquiries.
Option 3 might be taken where insufficient information was supplied to enable a proper Code test to be carried out or where the CPS were not satisfied that they could comply fully with their duties of disclosure under the CPIA, or where the police would be unable to verify the evidence provided by you or your clients.
The DPP is not under an obligation to take over a private prosecution simply because he could have instituted proceedings himself. It remains a discretion which could be exercised at any stage during the proceedings.
I have informed the CPS that I have sent this letter and I hope that you find the information in it useful.
Yours faithfully