Fiches Belges

Legal basis under Belgian Law: Law of 21 May 2013 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments and probation decisions with a view to the supervision of probation measures and alternative sanctions imposed in a Member State of the European Union.

Council Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA of 27 November 2008 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments and probation decisions with a view to the supervision of probation measures and alternative sanctions [only applicable with Member States having implemented this FD; For other Member States (and for non EU Member States), Belgium continues to apply European Convention of 30 November 1964 on the Supervision of Conditionally Sentenced or Conditionally Released Offenders.

* receive the request/decision for judicial cooperation The competent Belgian authority for giving Belgium's prior consent for a judgment to be forwarded, is the Ministry of Justice . If no prior consent from Belgium is required, the judgment can be directly forwarded to the territorially competent Public Prosecutor where the person concerned has his/her legal and usual residence or would like to reside. * execute/recognise the measure (if other than the receiving authority) The competent Belgian authority for recognizing and executing a judgment forwarded to Belgium (the executing authority) is the Public Prosecutor's office of the place where the person concerned has his/her residence or would like to reside.

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

Max. 60 days for the decision of the public prosecutor on the execution of the judgment (including legal remedies in principle).

Dual criminality: the execution of the judgment has to be refused if the offence for which the judgment was imposed does not constitute an offence under Belgian law unless the issuing judicial authority has indicated that the offence falls within one of the 32 categories of offence for which the double criminality requirement has been withdrawn. Euthanasia and abortion authorised under Belgian law will not be considered to be covered by the category of offence “murder”.