Dubai // Aiming to boost the quality of investigations and prosecutions, the Public Prosecution has set up four offices to focus on particular crimes. The offices began functioning yesterday, specialising in drugs, money, immigration and labour, and family matters. Essam al Humaidan, the Attorney General, said the new approach would "raise the level of professional performance in the Dubai Public Prosecution".
The drugs office will focus on cases involving illegal narcotics as well as pharmaceuticals, while the financial unit will target fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, the mismanagement of public funds and bribery. One office will concentrate on investigations and prosecutions concerning immigration, naturalisation and labour; and another will oversee cases involving domestic family crimes and juvenile offences.
Specialisation in the judiciary is not new to Dubai: The emirate introduced labour and real estate courts last year. "Even in public prosecution, there were some specialised prosecutors, for example with narcotics cases, but it was done on a small scale," said Hassan Mohammed Arab, a partner at Al Tamimi law firm. "The specialisation of prosecutors will allow them to delve deep into the crime paradigm and evaluate it from all angles."
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