The Study and Analysis of Role of "Investigator" in Previous and Existing Criminal Law Procedure

Investigator is a title for two officials and is an authority that has neutrality of judiciary, specialized investigative and police skills and also the features of grand jury judges. Although investigator is no more than one title but it includes two sets of different judicial and investigative status. The criminal procedure begins with the discovery of the offence and then, the prosecutor as the representative of the society prosecutes such offence. Investigation or collection of evidence after such prosecution is conducted by investigator. Afterward, the case enters into court proceedings. Iran Code of Criminal Procedure, following the French model, has been designed on the basis of existence of investigator, while global tendency is to remove this institution from the criminal proceedings. According to Code of Criminal Procedure, on the one hand, the investigator attempts to collect evidence based on his investigative status and on the other hand, decides about arresting or releasing of individuals based on his judicial status. According to Code of Criminal Procedure enacted on 2014, the investigator is subordinate to prosecutor. Substantial part of orders issued by investigator needed to be confirmed by prosecutor and without confirmation of prosecutor, orders of investigator has no legal effect. Even, the injunction order has no effect until approved by prosecutor. In fact, investigator is a neutral judge who must respect neutrality in collecting the evidence in accordance with law and follow the prosecutor. Such judge is required to prosecute all offences without exercising his discretion.