Confrontation is only allowed between people who have already been examined or interrogated, when there is disagreement between them on important facts and circumstances.
The Judge or the Public Prosecutor, after having recalled the previous statements to the subjects between whom the confrontation is to take place, asks them if they confirm or modify the said statements, inviting them, if necessary, to reciprocal disputes.
Moreover, the Judge – at request of the Public Prosecutor, in case the latter is proceeding – can order the compulsory accompaniment of a person invited to take part in a confrontation.
When it is necessary to carry out a line-up relating to a person, the Judge invites whoever has to perform it to describe the person, indicating all the details he remembers; he, then, asks him if he was previously called to carry out the recognition, if, before and after the fact for which the trial is being celebrated, he saw, even if reproduced in a photograph or otherwise, the person to be recognized, if the same was indicated or described to him and if there are other circumstances that may affect the reliability of the recognition.
Once the person who has to carry out the recognition has left, the Judge procures the presence of at least two people who are as similar as possible, even in clothing, to the one subjected to reconnaissance. The Judge, then, invites the latter to choose his place, making sure that he presents himself, as far as possible, in the same conditions in which he has allegedly been seen by the person called to the recognition. Once the latter has been introduced again in the Court room, the Judge asks him if he recognizes any of those present and, if so, asks him to indicate who he has recognized and to specify whether he is certain.
If there is a well-founded reason to believe that the person called to the recognition could be intimidated or otherwise influenced by the presence of the person being recognized, the Judge orders that the act be performed without the latter being able to see the first.
Similar rules apply when it is necessary to proceed with the recognition of the body of the evidence (corpus delicti) or other things pertinent to the crime or with the recognition of voices, sounds or anything else that can be subject to sensory perception.
Finally, similar rules apply also if the Public Prosecutor proceeds, when necessary for the immediate continuation of the investigations, with the line-up.