Head Military Procurator

in the USSR the official who heads the Main Military Procuratorate, which is part of the Procuratorate of the USSR.

The head military procurator is appointed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for a term of five years, upon recommendation by the general procurator of the USSR. The head military procurator and the military procurator subordinate to him ensure within the bounds of their competence that acts issued by the bodies of the military command are in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the USSR and of Union and autonomous republics and with the decrees of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and of Union and autonomous republics. They also supervise the compliance with the law of soldiers and of reservists (while they are carrying out practice musters), as well as that of workers and service workers of the Armed Forces of the USSR when they are fulfilling their service duties. They oversee compliance with the law in the activity of bodies of inquest of the Armed Forces of the USSR and in the activity of military investigators, as well as of the investigators of the bodies of state security when they are investigating cases under the jurisdiction of a military tribunal. Finally, they supervise observation of the law when a military tribunal is investigating criminal and civil cases related to their jurisdiction.

In foreign socialist countries, the military procuratorate is, as a rule, a component part of the system of bodies of the procuratorate, and the head military procurator is subordinate to the general (head) procurator of the country.

In bourgeois states, the military procuratorate usually is part of the system of the military ministry and is mainly a body for criminal investigation of martial cases and certain other crimes.