Chapter II: The Examining Magistrate's Chamber: a second instance examining magistrate's court

The hearings are held and the judgment is delivered in chambers. However, if the adult defendant or his or her lawyer so requests from the outset of the proceedings, they shall be held and the judgment shall be delivered in open court, unless publicity is likely to hinder the specific investigations required by the investigation or to harm the dignity of the person or the interests of a third party….

When the debates are over, the investigating chamber deliberates without the public prosecutor, the parties, their lawyers and the court clerk being able to be present under any circumstances.

The investigating chamber may, in all cases, at the request of the public prosecutor, one of the parties or even of its own motion, order any additional information that it deems useful. It may also, in all cases, after hearing the public prosecutor, order of its own motion the release of the person under investigation. It may order the remand in custody or under judicial supervision of the person under…

It may, of its own motion or at the request of the Public Prosecutor, order that he or she be informed in respect of the persons under investigation or defendants referred to it on all the counts of crimes, misdemeanours, contraventions, principal or related, resulting from the file of the proceedings, which may not have been covered by the order of the investigating judge or which may have been distracted…

Offences are related either when they have been committed at the same time by several persons together, or when they have been committed by different persons, even at different times and in different places, but as a result of a concert formed in advance between them, or when the guilty parties have committed some of them in order to obtain the means to commit the others, to facilitate them, to…

The Investigating Chamber may also, in respect of offences arising from the record of the proceedings, order that an indictment be issued, under the conditions laid down in Article 205, persons who have not been referred to it, unless they have been the subject of a dismissal order that has become final. This decision will not be subject to an appeal in cassation.

Supplementary information shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions relating to preliminary investigations either by one of the members of the Investigating Chamber or by an investigating judge delegated by it for this purpose. The Public Prosecutor may at any time request the communication of the proceedings, on condition that the exhibits are returned within twenty-four hours.

Subject to the provisions of articles 173-1,174 and 175, the Investigating Chamber examines the regularity of the proceedings submitted to it. If it discovers a ground for nullity, it declares the act in question null and void and, if appropriate, all or part of the subsequent proceedings. After annulment, it may either evoke and proceed under the conditions provided for in articles 201,202 and 204, or refer the case file…

Where the investigating chamber has ruled on an appeal against an order in respect of pre-trial detention, or following a referral from the public prosecutor either confirming that decision or, reversing it, ordering release or continued detention or issuing a committal or arrest warrant, the public prosecutor shall without delay return the case file to the investigating judge after ensuring that the ruling is executed. Where, in any other matter,…

The President of the Examining Magistrate’s Chamber, seised pursuant to the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 175-1, shall decide, within eight days of the transmission of the file, by an order that is not subject to appeal, whether or not there are grounds to refer the case to the Examining Magistrate’s Chamber. If there is, it shall transmit the case file to the Public Prosecutor who shall proceed…