French Customs Code
In forceI.-For the purposes of the customs investigation, customs officers may, during customs detention, in the constant and effective presence of the detainee, examine the contents of documents, whatever their medium, and all other objects in the detainee's possession, before seizing those relating to the customs offence in flagrante delicto. The public prosecutor is informed by any means and may object.
For digital media, the technical operations required to make computer data available are only carried out by customs officers authorised by the Minister responsible for customs or by a qualified person required underArticle 67 quinquies A, in order to enable the data to be used without compromising its integrity.
Computer data relating to the customs offence in flagrante delicto is seized, either by seizing the physical medium of the data or by making a copy in the presence of the detainee.
These operations are recorded in a report, a copy of which is given to the detainee and to the public prosecutor.
The objects and documents seized are immediately inventoried and sealed.
II-At the end of the customs detention, if the person is presented to the public prosecutor or handed over to a judicial police officer or a customs agent authorised underarticle 28-1 of the code of criminal procedure, the documents and objects seized are passed on to them.
III - If the needs of the customs investigation so require and with the written and reasoned authorisation of the public prosecutor, customs officers may, under the conditions set out in I of this article and within thirty days of the seizure, make a copy, for analysis purposes, of the computer data contained in the digital media referred to in I in the following cases:
1° When the person is released from customs detention ;
2° When, at the end of the period of customs detention, the judicial authority to which the case has been referred makes or leaves the digital media referred to in I available to customs officers.
The person placed in customs detention and the owner of the media, if this is a different person, are informed that they may attend the opening of the seals. If these persons are unable to attend, the operations are carried out in the presence of a representative or, failing this, a person requested for this purpose by the customs officers and who is not placed under their authority.
If analysis of the copied data leads to the discovery of offences falling within the jurisdiction of customs officers, the data and its media are immediately inventoried and placed under seal. The other copied data is destroyed at the end of a maximum period of three months from the date of copying of the computer data contained in the computer media referred to in I above.
The operations provided for in this III are the subject of a report sent to the public prosecutor who authorised them, with a copy given to the detainee.
IV - Within thirty days of receiving a request from the person concerned, or ex officio on expiry of a period of two months from the seizure, the customs officers of the department in charge of the procedure decide on the return of the objects seized where their ownership is not seriously disputed. The interested party is notified of this decision.
There is no reason to return seized objects if they are likely to endanger persons or property, if the seized property is the instrument or direct or indirect product of the offence or if a specific provision provides for the destruction or confiscation of the seized objects. The interested party may appeal against the decision not to return the property, taken within the time limits mentioned in the first paragraph of this IV, within thirty days of its notification to the president of the investigating chamber, by declaration delivered or sent, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or by electronic means, to the registry of the court of appeal for the place of the customs directorate to which the department responsible for the procedure belongs.
This appeal does not have suspensive effect. The order of the President of the Investigating Chamber may be appealed to the Court of Cassation in accordance with the rules set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Seized objects may only be destroyed once the decision not to return them has become final, within the meaning of the last paragraph of this IV.
If restitution has not been requested or ordered within six months of the decision to close the case, the settlement reached pursuant toarticle 350 or the decision by which the last court seised has exhausted its jurisdiction, if the decision not to return the items can no longer be contested or if the judgment or order not to return the items has become final, the items not returned become the property of the State, subject to the rights of third parties. The same applies if the owner or the person to whom restitution has been granted does not reclaim the object within two months of receipt of a formal notice sent to their home address.
