Public procurator

{{Short description|Officer of state who investigates and prosecutes crime in some continental jurisdictions}}

File:Longhai - P1260558.JPG, Fujian, China (中华人民共和国福建省龙海市人民检察院)]]

A public procurator ({{zh|公诉人;{{cite book|title=English-Chinese Dictionary of Humanities and Social Sciences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eG8EAQAAIAAJ|year=2001|publisher=China Renmin University Press|isbn=978-7-300-03733-2|pages=795–}} 检察官}}{{cite book|title=Legal English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AqdDNzdL7wMC&pg=PA307|year=2006|publisher=China Legal Publishing House|isbn=978-7-80226-465-6|pages=307–}}) is an officer of a state charged with both the investigation and prosecution of crime. The office is a feature of a civil law inquisitorial rather than common law adversarial system. Countries such as Japan, China, Russia, Indonesia and Lithuania adopt the procuratorial system.

The office of a procurator is called a procuracy or procuratorate.{{cite book|author=Aida Alayarian|title=Children of Refugees: Torture, Human Rights, and Psychological Consequences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUdaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT71|date=8 May 2018|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-429-91188-0|pages=71–}} The terms are from Latin and originate with the procurators of the Roman Empire.