Subject to the provisions of the fourth paragraph, any request for extradition shall be sent to the French government through diplomatic channels and accompanied either by a judgment or a sentence, even in absentia, or an act of criminal procedure formally decreeing or operating ipso jure the transfer of the person prosecuted before the criminal court, or an arrest warrant or any other act having the same force and issued by the judicial authority, provided that the latter acts contain a precise indication of the fact for which they are issued and the date of that fact.
The above-mentioned documents must be produced in the original or in a certified copy.
The requesting Government must at the same time produce a copy of the legal texts applicable to the act complained of. It may attach a statement of the facts of the case.
When it comes from a Member State of the European Union, the extradition request is sent directly by the competent authorities of that State to the Minister of Justice, who proceeds as stated in Article 696-9.