Italy
In Italy, a Prosecutor's Office is composed of a Chief Prosecutor
(procuratore capo) assisted by deputy prosecutors (procuratori
aggiunti) and assistant prosecutors (sostituti procuratori).[...]
Prosecutors are obligated under the Constitution to initiate
investigations once they are informed of a criminal act by notitia
criminis [notizia di reato], or bill of complaint
[denuncia]. Investigations are carried out by (judicial) police
detectives, and once enough evidence has been gathered in order to
proceed, the prosecution must move to initiate trial proceedings.
At trial, the prosecuting attorney is ceremonially referred to as
Pubblico Ministero (or P.M.), i.e., Prosecution, and is
prohibited from withholding exculpatory evidence [prove a discarico].
In appellate courts, the Office of the Prosecutor is called
Procura generale and the Chief Prosecutor procuratore generale
(PG). The Procuratore generale di Corte di cassazione is the
prosecutor before the Corte di Cassazione, the supreme court of Italy.
Prosecutors in Italy
are judicial officers just like judges, allowing them to act in the
other's stead. A recent ruling by the Italian Constitutional
Court stated that prosecutors who wish to become judges must relocate to
another region and are prohibited to sit or hear trials that they
themselves initiated.
In many countries, the prosecutor's administration is directly
subordinate to the executive branch (e.g. the US Attorney General is a
member of the President's cabinet).