White paper on crime 2010 Part4/Chapter3/Section1/1
Public prosecutors are in principle required to prosecute a case referred to them by a family court if there is suspicion that an offense has been committed and there also is sufficient evidence for the prosecution.
Prosecution of juveniles is subject to basically the same procedure as adults but the court can decide to transfer the case to a family court if it is revealed that placing the juvenile defendant under a protective measure is deemed the most appropriate in the trial. In addition, when imprisonment with or without work for three years or more is deemed appropriate, an indeterminate sentence (where the minimum and maximum term of the imprisonment are defined but cannot exceed five years and 10 years, respectively) can be rendered within the statutory penalty, although excluding any case where suspension of execution of the sentence was granted. With juveniles younger than 18 at the time of the offense, life imprisonment must be imposed if the death penalty was considered appropriate, and imprisonment with or without work for a definite term can be imposed if life imprisonment was considered appropriate.