Legal Literacy - In the judicial arena, the public often identifies the Public Prosecutor (JPU) with the image of a tenacious lion. He, with all his arguments and evidence, struggles to convince the judge to sentence a defendant. The prosecutor becomes the personification of the state demanding criminal accountability. However, imagine a scenario that collapses this classic image: the same lion, in the middle of an open trial, instead bows his head and asks the panel of judges to release his prey.

Phenomenon Prosecutors demand acquittal or when the prosecutor files a release claim (ontslag van alle rechtsvervolging) against a defendant immediately triggers polemics. Some consider this an anomaly, even an admission of failure. For me, this is the moment when criminal law shows its most magnificent face. This debate is not just about juridical techniques, but concerns the soul of our criminal justice system .

Dominus Litis Wrong?

Often, many parties reject the prosecutor's authority to demand acquittal based their arguments on a rigid interpretation of the dominus litis principle. This principle, which literally means "master of the case", does give the Prosecutor's Office a mandate as the only institution that can prosecute. Adhering to this principle, some people argue that once the prosecutor submits a case to court, his sacred duty binds him to demand punishment. They consider that withdrawing from the prosecution, let alone asking for acquittal, would violate this principle.

This argument, in essence, contains a fundamental error. Dominus litis is a principle about the monopoly of prosecution authority, not a mandate to act blindly. This authority gives the prosecutor full control over a case. That control includes the initiation of prosecution, changes to the indictment, and ultimately, the withdrawal of conclusions based on the facts revealed at trial. If the trial proves the opposite of what the prosecutor believed at the beginning, then control over the case—precisely based on dominus litis—requiring the prosecutor to adjust his demands according to the newly revealed truth.