Chapter I: Criminal court

Hearings shall be held in public. However, the court may, on finding in its judgment that publicity is dangerous to order, the serenity of the proceedings, the dignity of the person or the interests of a third party, order, by judgment given in open court, that the proceedings shall be held in camera. Where proceedings have been ordered to be held in camera, this shall apply to the delivery of…

For the trial of the war crimes mentioned in Chapter I of Book IV bis of the Criminal Code and the crimes mentioned in Article 706-73 of this code, the court may, by judgment given in open court, order that a witness be heard in camera for the duration of the hearing if the witness’s public testimony is likely to seriously endanger his life or physical integrity or those of…

The chairman is responsible for policing the hearing and directing the proceedings.

The president may prohibit minors or certain minors from entering the courtroom.

When, during the hearing, one of the assistants disturbs order in any way whatsoever, the President shall order his expulsion from the courtroom. If, during the execution of this measure, he resists this order or causes an uproar, he shall, forthwith, be placed under a committal order, tried and punished by two years’ imprisonment, without prejudice to the penalties laid down in the Penal Code against the perpetrators of contempt…

If order is disturbed at the hearing by the accused himself, the provisions of Article 404. The accused, even if free, when expelled from the courtroom, is kept by the police at the disposal of the court until the end of the proceedings. He is then taken back to the hearing, where the judgment is delivered in his presence.