  A profinite group $G$ is just infinite if every closed normal subgroup of $G$
is of finite index. We prove that an infinite profinite group is just infinite
if and only if, for every open subgroup $H$ of $G$, there are only finitely
many open normal subgroups of $G$ not contained in $H$. This extends a result
recently established by Barnea, Gavioli, Jaikin-Zapirain, Monti and Scoppola,
who proved the same characterisation in the case of pro-$p$ groups. We also use
this result to establish a number of features of the general structure of
profinite groups with regard to the just infinite property.
