Fiches Belges

The search is a means of coercion by which a competent authority enters a home or outbuilding, under the conditions and forms laid down by law, in order to establish the facts of a crime there, assemble the evidence relating to an offence or to arrest the perpetrators of the offence or their accomplices. The search can be executed both in the home of the suspect as well as in a home of a third party in case there are reasons to believe that evidence can be assembled relating to the offence.

EU Directive 2014/41/EU, with the European Investigation Order (EIO). For countries who have not implemented this EU Directive: - European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, Strasbourg, 20/04/1959 - Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, Strasbourg, 17/03/1978 - EU Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, Brussels, 29/05/2000 - The Schengen Agreement (Schengen, 19 juni 1990).

* receive the request/decision for judicial cooperation The request must be sent to the local public prosecutor’s office of the geographical area where the investigating measure must be executed. If this area is not known, the request must be sent to the federal prosecutor’s office - section of international cooperation. * execute/recognise the measure (if other than the receiving authority) The public prosecutor, where the occupant agrees. In other cases the investigating judge.

Dutch, French, German and English. Important remarks: Before the execution, the request will be translated by the Belgian prosecutor if the language is not the language of the judicial area where the request must be executed. It is recommended, when possible, to obtain, prior to sending the request, information about the use of the correct language.

The deadlines as foreseen in the EIO Directive are applicable. There is no specific deadline foreseen by Belgian law for the execution of letters of request. If the requested deadline cannot be respected, the requesting state will be informed accordingly.

a. Special requirements Content of the international letters rogatory: The investigating judge must motivate his order to proceed to the house search. It is required that the request contains sufficient information about the investigation for the investigating judge to be able to motivate his order. In principle, searches cannot start between 9 pm and 5 am. The measure can be executed 24/7 in cases foreseen by law ( terrorism offences, in case of request or permission of the occupant of the premises). b. Other useful information The presence of the requesting judicial authority and/or investigators can be allowed; this has to be requested explicitly.