Extradition is the procedure by which one State, the requested State, agrees to surrender a person located on its territory to another State, the requesting State, which is seeking that person in order to prosecute them for the commission of a crime or an offense, or to enforce a sentence already imposed for such a crime or offense.
Sexual exhibition imposed upon the sight of another person in a place visible to the public is punishable by one year’s imprisonment and a fine of €15,000.
The offence of sexual exhibition is also established where the explicit performance of a sexual act, whether real or simulated, is imposed upon the sight of another person in a place visible to the public (even where no naked part of the body is exposed).
A criminal record is a national record containing all convictions handed down against an individual, whether a simple fine or a custodial sentence.
It is possible to apply for the expungement of a criminal record where the legal requirements are met.
Procuring is a criminal offence involving facilitating or profiting from the prostitution of another person. Several acts may constitute or be treated as procuring, whether directly or indirectly.
Where there are no aggravating circumstances, perpetrators are liable to 7 years’ imprisonment, a fine of €150,000 and additional penalties.
Rape, provided for and punishable under Articles 222-23 et seq. of the French Criminal Code, is a felony defined as “any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any oral-genital act committed on another person or on the perpetrator by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.
Rape is punishable by 15 years’ imprisonment, increased to 20 years where aggravating circumstances exist.
Any person placed under formal investigation (mis en examen)—that is, a person against whom the investigating judge considers there to be serious and consistent evidence suggesting that they participated, either as a principal offender or as an accomplice, in the commission of a felony (crime) or a misdemeanour (délit)—is presumed innocent and, as a general rule, remains at liberty.
However, where required by the needs of the judicial investigation or as a preventive measure, pre-trial detention may be ordered.
Police custody is a coercive measure involving the deprivation of liberty, decided in order to keep a person suspected of having committed an offence at the disposal of investigators.
A person is placed in police custody by a judicial police officer, who immediately informs the Public Prosecutor, where certain conditions are met.
A person held in police custody has several rights.
French criminal law penalises revenge porn, namely the practice of taking revenge on a person by making sexually explicit content public with the clear intention of humiliating them, where that person has never consented to its dissemination.
The Comparution sur Reconnaissance Préalable de Culpabilité (CRPC) is an alternative procedure to a criminal trial that allows certain offences to be dealt with more quickly when the accused, who must be an adult, admits the alleged offence.
A victim of domestic violence—that is, physical, psychological, sexual or economic violence committed against them by a person to whom they are or were married, in a civil partnership or in a relationship—who considers that such violence may endanger their life or the lives of their children may apply to the Family Court Judge for a protection order.