Fiches Belges

This measure allows requests to be made to operators of telecommunications networks to make a list of the incoming and outgoing communications of a particular telephone number or to determine the location of incoming or outgoing calls. Tracing telephone numbers does not include listening to the content of the communications and the measure can only be ordered by lack of other sufficient measures to find the truth.

1959 Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters; Directive 2014/41/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters (Articles 3 and 30).

* 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 investigating judge (Art 88bis of the Code of Criminal Procedure). Tracing of telecommunications is the exclusive competence of the investigating judge who will be charged with the execution of the request (see below for further information).

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 request: 1. The investigating judge has the obligation to motivate his order to proceed to the tracing of telecommunication (proportionality check). It is required that the request contains sufficient information about the investigation in order to make the investigating judge able to motivate his order. b. Other useful information 1. Data retention: traffic and location data are stored for maximum one year. However, whether the information can be provided, depends on the crime that is investigated. For some measures the investigative judge can only go back 6 or 9 months in time. 2. The measure can also be ordered for the future. The duration of the measures is limited to two months by law; prolongation possible.