Chapter II: Preliminary investigation

The Public Prosecutor or, with his authorisation, the judicial police officer or agent or, in the case provided for in 3° of Article 21-3 and under the control of the latter, the investigation assistant, may, by any means, request any person, private or public establishment or body or public administration likely to hold information relevant to the investigation, including, subject to Article 60-1-2, those from a computer system or processing of nominative data, to hand over this information, in particular in digital form, where applicable in accordance with standards set by regulation, without the obligation of professional secrecy being invoked against them without legitimate reason. Where the requisitions concern persons mentioned in Articles 56-1 to 56-5, the information may only be provided with their consent.

If the person fails to respond to the requisitions, the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 60-1 shall apply.

The last paragraph of article 60-1 and article 60-1-1 are also applicable.

Without prejudice to specific instructions and authorisations that may be given for a given procedure, the requisitions provided for in this article may be subject to authorisations from the public prosecutor resulting from general instructions taken pursuant to Article 39-3 and concerning crimes or offences punishable by imprisonment, exhaustively listed by that magistrate, when they are necessary for the determination of the truth and have the following purpose:

1° The handing over of recordings from a video-protection system concerning the places in which the offence was committed or the places in which the persons against whom there are one or more plausible reasons to suspect that they have committed or attempted to commit the said offence are likely to be or to have been found;

2° The search for bank accounts held by a person against whom there are one or more plausible grounds for suspecting that they have committed or attempted to commit the offence, as well as the balance of these accounts;

3° The provision of lists of employees, collaborators, personnel and service providers of private or public law companies, when the investigation concerns the offences provided for in Articles L. 8224-1 and L. 8224-2 of the Labour Code;

4° The provision of data relating to civil status, identity documents and residence permits concerning the person against whom there are one or more plausible grounds for suspecting that he or she has committed or attempted to commit the offence ;

5° The provision of data relating to the automated reading of number plates, where the offence was committed using a vehicle and where this data is likely to make it possible to locate a person against whom there are one or more plausible grounds for suspecting that he has committed or attempted to commit the offence.

These general instructions specify the authorised requisitions depending on the offences in question, with regard to their nature or seriousness. Their duration may not exceed six months. The public prosecutor may renew them for the same period, modify them or terminate them before they expire. The Public Prosecutor is immediately notified of the issuance of requisitions carried out in application of his general instructions. This notification shall specify the offences for which the requisition has been issued. The public prosecutor may order that the requisition be withdrawn.