Book III: Extraordinary remedies

Rulings by the investigating chamber and final rulings and judgments handed down by the trial courts, when they are in the form prescribed by law, may only be quashed for breach of the law. .

Such decisions shall be declared null and void where they are not given by the prescribed number of judges or where they have been given by judges who did not attend all the hearings in the case. Where several hearings have been devoted to the same case, the judges who contributed to the decision are presumed to have attended all those hearings. These decisions are also declared null and void…

Judgments of the investigating chamber, as well as final judgments and rulings, are declared void if they do not contain reasons or if their reasons are insufficient and do not allow the Cour de cassation to exercise its review and to recognise whether the law has been complied with in the operative part. The same applies where a ruling has been omitted or refused either on one or more applications…

When the Examining Magistrate’s Chamber rules on the settlement of proceedings, all pleas alleging that the information is null and void must be submitted to it, failing which the parties are no longer entitled to raise them, except in cases where they could not have been aware of them, and without prejudice to the right of the Cour de cassation to raise all pleas of its own motion.

In criminal cases and where the accused has been convicted, if the judgment has pronounced a penalty other than that applied by law to the nature of the crime, the annulment of the judgment may be pursued both by the public prosecutor and by the convicted party.

The same action lies with the public prosecutor against the acquittal judgments mentioned in article 363 if the decision was made on the basis of the non-existence of a criminal law that would nevertheless have existed.

Where the sentence handed down is the same as that imposed by the law applicable to the offence, no one may seek to have the judgment set aside on the pretext that there has been an error in the citation of the text of the law.

In correctional matters, the accused is not admissible to present as a means of cassation the nullities committed in first instance if he did not raise them before the court of appeal, with the exception of nullity on the ground of lack of jurisdiction where there was an appeal by the public prosecutor. In criminal matters, the accused is not admissible to present as a plea in cassation the nullities…

No one may, under any circumstances, take advantage against the party being prosecuted of the violation or omission of the rules established to ensure the latter’s defence.