EIRP Proceedings, Vol 15, No 1 (2020)

Abstract

The absence of the prosecutor when his participation is compulsory is sanctioned with the absolute nullity of all the procedural acts conducted without his involvement. In a criminal case where the ex officio notification report, the prosecutor's ordinances for the beginning of the criminal investigaton, of extending the criminal investigation do not contain the prosecutor's holograph signature, the court cannot verify if these procedural acts were truly issued by the prosecutor mentioned in them. The holograph signature applied by the prosecutor on the original procedural acts is the only method of guaranteeing that the procedure and content of these acts were assumed by the public attorney. The application of a stamp that reproduces the prosecutor’s signature is an indirect and mechanical method of signing that brings the absolute nullity of the procedural act brought by the public attorney’s absence in the supposed issuing of the document. This indirect method of “signing” does not allow to ascertain that the prosecutor has signed the procedural act, because a stamp can be applied by anyone.