An investigator may decide to hear freely a person suspected of having committed an offense in the following situations:

• Wrongdoing investigation
• Preliminary Inquiry
• Survey on letters rogatory of the examining magistrate
• Customs investigation
• Hearing following a placement in safety chamber
• Hearing following a alcohol or drug testing.

A suspect's open hearing is about only the person in respect of whom there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that he or she may have participate or attempted to participate the commission of an offense.

The judicial police officer (OPJ) shall summon the suspect within the time limit he or she determines to conduct his or her investigation. He is not obliged to hear that person immediately after the fact.

In front of a policeman, a gendarme or an official with judicial police powers, 3 cumulative items determine whether a person is heard in the context of the open hearing:

• She received a summons
• It shall be the subject of a hearing which shall be followed by the drawing up of minutes
• She is free to sign or not to sign the minutes.

Summons by a judicial police officer

This may take the form of a letter, an email, a text message or a telephone call.

If the summons from the judicial police officer (OPJ) is written, it shall contain the following information:

• Nature of the infringement for which you are implicated
• Right to legal assistance during the hearing if the offense concerned is punishable by a prison sentence
• Conditions for access to legal aid
• Designation modes for a court-appointed lawyer
• Where she can get legal advice before this hearing.

The summons states that the person has the possibility of appointing a lawyer immediately or at any time during the hearing.

Free hearing

The interview takes place with a policeman or gendarme, judicial police officer, or a official with judicial police powers.

Place of the open hearing

If the person is summoned by a police officer or gendarme, he or she is interviewed within police or gendarmerie premises.

If the person is summoned by an official, he shall be heard within premises of its administration (e.g. labor inspection, enforcement, customs, tax administration).

Free presentation of the person being interviewed

The person heard must appear freely in front of the investigator who summoned her.

The person therefore cannot :

• Being handcuffed on the way
• Having been forced into the vehicle of the police or gendarmes before this hearing
• They were arrested and forcibly returned to the investigators’ premises.

The person may leave the police station, the gendarmerie or the premises where the interview takes place when she wants to, after the OPJ offered to sign the hearing minutes.

Drafting of a free hearing report

During the interview, the investigator who is auditing the person writes a report (minutes) attesting to the conduct of the hearing.

If the person agrees with the content of that document, they sign it.

If the person is disagree with the transcribed remarks, she may refuse to sign: the investigator will mention her refusal on the VP.

The minutes remain in the OPJ's record of proceedings. The person cannot get a copy of that document.

Before the person is heard, the investigator must first verify the person's identity.

He must then give it to him orally the following information:

• Right to know the nature of the alleged offense. From the beginning of the interview, the person is informed of the classification of the offense as it may be envisaged at this stage of the investigation, the date and the alleged place of that infringement. This information may also be given in the written notice
• Right to have a interpreter if she does not understand the French language. If the interpreter cannot move, assistance may be provided by means of telecommunications.
• Right to answer questions
• Right to to make spontaneous declarations
• Right to silence : it has the option not to incriminate itself because, at this stage of the proceedings, it enjoys the presumption of innocence
• Right to leave the premises at any time where it is held (it is not a police custody). Free hearing has no specific duration.

The investigator must also inform the person they can:

• Benefit from legal advice in a right access structure
• Be assisted by a lawyer. The assistance of a lawyer is not possible the offense prosecuted is a crime or an offense punishable by imprisonment.

In case of assistance from a lawyer, he shall be chosen or appointed ex officio by the bastler. The investigator must inform the person that the costs of the ex officio appointment of the lawyer remain at his expense, unless he meets the conditions for access to the legal aid.

There is no waiting period between the time when the lawyer is notified by the OPJ and the time when he appears in the hearing room. Hearing may so continue without the lawyer. The person may, however, refuse to be interviewed in his or her absence and leave the police premises (unless he or she wishes to remain silent until arrival). The OPJ will then be able to call her back later with her lawyer.

If the person being heard is a minor, the investigator must notify him that his legal representative (parents, guardian or service to which he is entrusted) is informed of his free hearing. The legal representative may request that the minor be assisted by a lawyer during the hearing.

If the person being heard isprotected major, the OPJ must notify by any means his curator or his guardian. The legal representative may appoint a lawyer or request that a lawyer be appointed by the bastler to assist the protected middle finger during the hearing. If a lawyer is not present and the guardian or guardian cannot be notified by the OPJ, the statements of the protected adult cannot be used as the sole basis for a conviction.

The investigator shall give the person interviewed a form for notification of his rights.

The situation varies depending on whether or not there are consistent indications of guilt during the open hearing.