Chapter II: Preliminary investigation

The Public Prosecutor or, with his authorisation, the judicial police officer or agent or, in the case provided for in 3° of Article 21-3 and under the control of the latter, the investigation assistant, may, by any means, request any person, private or public establishment or body or public administration likely to hold information relevant to the investigation, including, subject to Article 60-1-2, those from a computer system or processing…

With the authorisation of the public prosecutor, the judicial police officer or agent may carry out the requisitions provided for in the first paragraph of Article 60-2 subject to Article 60-1-2. With the authorisation of the juge des libertés et de la détention (liberty and custody judge) to whom the public prosecutor has referred the matter for this purpose, the police officer or agent may carry out the requisitions provided…

With the authorisation of the public prosecutor, the judicial police officer or agent may carry out the requisitions provided for in Article 60-3. The second paragraph of the same Article 60-3 is applicable.

I.-At any time during the preliminary investigation, the public prosecutor may, where he considers that this decision is not likely to undermine the effectiveness of the investigations, inform the accused, the victim or their lawyers that a copy of all or part of the case file is being made available to their lawyers, or to them if they are not assisted by a lawyer, and that they have the opportunity…

The request referred to in II of Article 77-2 shall be made to the public prosecutor under whose direction the investigation is being conducted. Failing this, if this information is not known to the person, it may be sent to the public prosecutor of the judicial court within whose jurisdiction one of the acts mentioned in the same article was carried out, who will forward it without delay to the…

If the needs of the investigation into a crime or offence punishable by at least three years’ imprisonment so require, the public prosecutor may issue a search warrant for any person against whom there are one or more plausible grounds for suspecting that he has committed or attempted to commit the offence. The provisions of the second and third paragraphs of Article 70 shall then apply.

People summoned by a judicial police officer for the purposes of an investigation are obliged to appear. The judicial police officer may, with the prior authorisation of the public prosecutor, compel the appearance by force of law of persons who have not responded to a summons to appear or who may be feared not to respond to such a summons. The public prosecutor may also authorise the appearance by force…