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The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service is reponsible for investigating and prosecuting criminal offences. The Public Prosecution Service main tasks are: supervising the police in the investigation of criminal offences, prosecuting criminal offences and bringing suspected offenders before the courts and dealing with criminal offences without involving the courts.

War crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and enforced disappearances: international crimes and offenses of the most serious sort. The Dutch government believes that such crimes must be investigated and the guilty parties brought to justice.

To solve a serious crime, under certain circumstances the Public Prosecution Service is allowed to test a person’s DNA. Those conditions are regulated by law. Sometimes it may be important to test the DNA of a person other than the suspect. This is called ‘third party DNA testing’.