Chapter IV: Procedures for exercising the right to the assistance of an interpreter and the translation of certain documents in the proceedings

Without prejudice to the possibility for the public prosecutor or the investigating or trial court hearing the case to order, of its own motion or at the request of the person, the translation of a document considered essential to the exercise of the defence and to guaranteeing the fairness of the trial, must be translated pursuant to Article Preliminary and Article 803-5 : 1° Decisions to remand a person in…

The translation of essential documents may relate only to those passages of these documents that are relevant to the person’s knowledge of the facts of which he or she is accused. The relevant passages of these documents are determined, depending on the stage of the proceedings, by the public prosecutor, the investigating judge or the court hearing the case.

The translation must be completed within a reasonable timeframe that allows the rights of the defence to be exercised and takes into account the number and complexity of the documents to be translated and the language into which they must be translated.

If, by way of exception, the pleading has been the subject of an oral translation or an oral summary, in accordance with the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 803-5, this shall be mentioned in the minutes or in the notes of the hearings. This mention may, where appropriate, appear in the document itself, in particular in the convening minutes provided for in the last paragraph of Article 390-1,…