Fiches Belges

This measure involves observation within the framework of a criminal investigation, which starts off on the national territory of one state and continues on the territory of another state.

Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14th June 1985 on the gradual abolition of checks at common borders (Article 40) and its Protocol of 24 June 1997, and amended and completed by Council Decision 2003/725/JHA of 2nd October 2003; Treaty between the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg concerning cross-border police intervention (Article 19);

* 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..

Dutch, French and German. 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.

N/A

Except in urgent cases, the observation team must possess the document attesting that authorization has been given, complying with the injunctions of the locally competent authorities, be in a position to give proof of its quality at any given time, only use their standard issue weapon in self-defence, not enter places of residence or premises not accessible to the public and not question or arrest persons being observed. Observation is resumed at the border or as near as possible to the border by the requested Belgian police department as soon as possible. In certain cases, the observation team will be accompanied by a Belgian police officer from the border or as near to the border as possible. A report is written and sent in duplicate to the competent public prosecutor if the observation has produced any evidence that is essential for exposing the truth.