Section 8: Letters rogatory

The examining magistrate may request by letter rogatory any judge of his court, any examining magistrate or any officer of the judicial police, who shall in this case notify the public prosecutor, to carry out the acts of information that he considers necessary in the places where each of them has territorial jurisdiction. The letter rogatory shall indicate the nature of the offence, which is the subject of the proceedings….

The magistrates or judicial police officers assigned to carry out the investigation exercise, within the limits of the letter rogatory, all the powers of the investigating judge. However, the judicial police officers may not conduct interviews or confrontations with the persons under investigation. They may only interview civil parties or assisted witnesses at their request. The examining magistrate may travel, without being assisted by his clerk or having to draw…

Any witness summoned to be heard during the execution of a letter rogatory is required to appear, take an oath and give evidence. Where there is no plausible reason to suspect that he has committed or attempted to commit an offence, he may be detained only for the time strictly necessary for his hearing. If he fails to comply with this obligation, notice shall be given to the instructing magistrate…

The provisions of articles 61-1 and 61-2 relating to the hearing of a suspected person or a victim as well as Articles 61-3 and 62-2 to 64-1 are applicable during the execution of letters rogatory. The powers conferred on the public prosecutor by these articles are then exercised by the investigating judge. When the information provided for in articles 61-1 and 63-1 is issued, it is specified that the hearing…

For the purposes of executing the letter rogatory, the judicial police officer may have the operations provided for in Article 55-1. The provisions of the last four paragraphs of Article 55-1 shall apply. The authorisation provided for in the last paragraph of the same Article 55-1 shall then be given by the examining magistrate.

Investigating judges who are considering examining a person who has not already been heard as an assisted witness may request by letter rogatory, in accordance with the procedures set out in Article 151, any investigating judge to proceed with the examination of that person in accordance with the provisions of Article 116. The examining magistrate responsible for executing the letter rogatory then proceeds to examine the person in accordance with…