Immediate appearance

The immediate appearance is a procedure which makes it possible to make judge quickly somebody following the police custody.

In France

Envisaged by articles 393 and following of the Criminal procedure code, immediate appearance corresponds to the old procedure known as of " obvious délit".

It requires the meeting of three conditions:

the joined together evidence must appear with the parquet floor sufficient so that the defendant is submitted with the court;
the sorrow of imprisonment incurred must be at least equal to two years and, in the event of obvious offense, higher than six months;
it is necessary finally that it is about a minor, neither of a violation of the press laws, neither of a political offense, nor of an infringement whose procedure of continuation is envisaged by a special law.

When these three conditions are met, the defendant appears at once before the court or to the maximum after three days of detention when the court cannot meet the very same day, if not it will be given in freedom of office. However, the lawyer or the Prévenu can require an additional information and thus an additional time if it estimates that the business is not in a position to be judged.

In Belgium

Immediate appearance was born from a law of March 29th, 2000.

Conditions

It is applicable in front of the magistrates' courts:

with the delinquents who incur a custodial sentence of which the duration is understood between one and ten years,
provided that the infringement is obvious or that the loads joined together in the month following the realization of the infringement appear sufficient so that the business is submitted to a judge.

As the procedure applies to all the punishable infringements from one to ten years of correctional imprisonment, it can also be implemented when a Crime was correctionnalisé.

As immediate appearance is based on a loss of liberty, its implementation requires the conditions (required for public safety, collusion with thirds risks, risks escape, etc) justifying a placement in Detention pending trial.

Procedure

The prosecutor requests from the Examining magistrate a Warrant for arrest for immediate appearance.

the examining magistrate must hear the interested party before placing it in detention pending trial. The warrant for arrest can be the subject of no recourse.
if the examining magistrate refuses the provisional placement in detention, the procedure of immediate appearance ends.

The person is placed in detention pending trial while waiting for the delivery of the judgment, the duration of detention not being able however not to exceed seven days.

When the prosecutor obtained the particular title of detention for immediate appearance, it notifies with interested the loads selected and the date indicates to him which was appointed for the judgment.
the maximum duration of validity of the title of detention obliges the Tribunal to examine the business quickly.

The court rules “forthwith” or in the five days after the setting on of deliberated.

It can also defer its decision to a later audience, but which cannot take place more than fifteen days after the initial audience. The maximum duration of the title of detention makes such a carryforward not very probable.
the court can also return the file to the prosecutor if it considers the business too complex. The procedure proceeds then according to the common right.

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