Book IV: Some special procedures

Where the requirements of the investigation or enquiry into one of the crimes or offences falling within the scope of Articles 706-73 and 706-73-1 le justifient, le procureur de la République ou, après avis de ce magistrat, le juge d’instruction saisi peuvent autoriser qu’il soit procédé, sous leur contrôle respectif, à une opération d’infiltration dans les conditions prévues par la présente section. Undercover surveillance consists, for an officer or agent…

Officers or agents of the judicial police authorised to carry out an undercover operation may, throughout the national territory, without being criminally liable for these acts: 1° Acquire, hold, transport, deliver or issue substances, goods, products, documents or information derived from or used in the commission of offences; 2° Use or make available to persons committing these offences means of a legal or financial nature as well as means of…

On pain of nullity, the authorisation given pursuant to Article 706-81 shall be issued in writing and must be specially reasoned. It mentions the offence or offences that justify the use of this procedure and the identity of the judicial police officer under whose responsibility the operation is taking place. This authorisation sets the duration of the undercover operation, which may not exceed four months. The operation may be renewed…

The real identity of the officers or agents of the judicial police who carried out the infiltration under an assumed identity must not appear at any stage of the proceedings. Revealing the identity of these officers or judicial police agents is punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of €75,000. When this revelation has caused violence, assault and battery against these persons or their spouses, children and direct ascendants,…

In the event of a decision to interrupt the operation or at the end of the period set by the decision authorising the infiltration and in the absence of an extension, the undercover agent may continue the activities mentioned in Article 706-82, without being criminally liable, for the time strictly necessary to enable him to cease his surveillance in conditions that ensure his safety, without this period exceeding four months….

The judicial police officer under whose responsibility the undercover operation takes place may alone be heard as a witness on the operation. However, if the report referred to in the third paragraph of Article 706-81 that the person under investigation or appearing before the trial court is directly implicated by findings made by an agent who personally carried out the undercover operations, this person may ask to be confronted with…

No conviction may be handed down solely on the basis of statements made by judicial police officers or agents who have carried out an undercover operation. The provisions of this article shall not, however, apply where judicial police officers or agents give evidence under their true identity.