Under French law, probation measures or alternative sanctions aim at facilitating the social insertion/reinsertion of the sentenced person, improve victim’s and society’s protection and facilitate the application of such measures when the offender does not live in the sentencing State.
The certificate mentioning certain elements such as the infraction committed, the measure related to it, the identity of the convicted person and the language used must be transmitted with conviction or probation decision.
For a probation measure or alternative sanction to be recognized in France, the convicted person must have a habitual residence, on a regular basis in France.
By exception, French authorities can recognize such measure/sanction upon the request of the convicted person. In this case, the convicting State must consult French authorities before sending the certificate. The transmission of the conviction or probation decision is subjected to the consent of the French public prosecutor if the convicted person is a French national – or the Minister of the justice if the offender is not a French national.
Mandatory grounds for refusal (art. 764-24 Criminal Code of Procedure):
1° The certificate has not been produced, is incomplete or manifestly does not correspond to the sentence or to the decision and has not been completed or corrected within the fixed deadline;
2° The conditions provided under articles 764-2 to 764-5 have not been met, in particular when, in accordance with subparagraph 2° of article 764-5, the recognition of the sentence or of the probation decision is conditional upon the consent of France and that consent has not been requested or has been refused;
3° The sentencing decision relates to offences for which the convicted person has already been definitively convicted by the French courts or by the courts of a State of the European Union other than the sentencing State, on condition that the sentence has been executed, is in the process of being executed or can no longer be executed according to the law of the State which passed the sentence;
4° The sentence is based on conduct which does not constitute an offence under French law;
5° The offence could have been tried by French courts and the statutory limitation period for the execution of the sentence had expired under French law on the date on which the certificate was received;
6° The sentenced person benefits in France from an immunity which constitutes a bar to the execution of the sentence or of the decision;
7° The person who is the subject of the sentence or the decision was a minor aged under 13 years on the date of the offence(s);
8° The sentenced person did not appear in person at the trial which led to the decision, except in the cases specified in subparagraphs 1° to 3° of article 695-22-1;
9° The sentence passed includes an order for psychiatric or medical care or another type of measure which cannot be executed under the rules of the French legal system or the French health care system. The ground for refusal provided under subparagraph 4° cannot be relied upon when the sentencing decision concerns an offence relating to taxes, duties, customs and foreign currency exchange on the basis that French law does not provide for the same type of taxes or duties or does not contain the same type of regulation in matters of tax, duties, customs or foreign currency exchange as the law of the sentencing State.
Optional grounds for refusal (art. 764-25):
1° The length of the alternative sanction or the probation measure is less than six months on the date the certificate is received;
2° The sentence or the decision was made in respect of offences committed wholly, for the most part or in the main on French territory or in a place that is equivalent to French territory;
3° The sentencing decision relates to offences for which the convicted person has already been definitively convicted by a court of a State which is not a Member State of the European Union, on condition that the sentence has been executed, is in the process of being executed or can no longer be executed according to the law of the sentencing State.