Are you innocent until proven guilty in France? Your rights

Yes: in France you are innocent until proven guilty. Article 9 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen guarantees it, and it applies from the first hour of police custody until the final judgment.

Does French law presume you innocent?

French law presumes you innocent under three separate texts, each at a different level of the legal order. This matters in practice: a defence argument can rely on the Constitution, the Code of Criminal Procedure or the European Convention, depending on where the breach occurred.

The legal basis for the presumption

Article 9 of the 1789 Declaration provides that everyone is presumed innocent until declared guilty. The preliminary article of the French Code of Criminal Procedure applies this to every person suspected or prosecuted, who remains presumed innocent until their guilt has been established. Its current version has been in force since 1 March 2022.

A third source sits above national legislation. Under Article 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights, which applies in France, everyone charged with a criminal offence is presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law.

Who must prove guilt?

The prosecution must establish guilt, and as a general rule you do not have to prove your innocence. Arrest, police custody, formal placement under judicial investigation and pre-trial detention are procedural measures. None of them is a finding that you are guilty, however much they may feel like one.

The French legal framework adds structural safeguards. Criminal procedure must be fair and adversarial, must keep a balance between the parties, and must separate the authorities who prosecute from those who judge. Under the preliminary article, every compulsory measure must also be necessary and proportionate. That requirement is the standard against which a lawyer tests each restriction placed on you.

Can an offence create a presumption?

Some offences contain rebuttable factual or legal presumptions, which means that once certain facts are shown, the court may infer others unless you produce contrary proof. These presumptions do not displace the general presumption of innocence in criminal law. They operate within it, for a specific offence.

The European Court of Human Rights requires such presumptions to stay within reasonable limits and to preserve defence rights. An impermissible shift of the burden onto the defence can breach Article 6(2). On 6 January 2026, the Cour de cassation rejected a challenge in an environmental-offence case because the statutory scheme did not create an irrebuttable presumption of guilt. The distinction that carries weight is whether contrary proof remains genuinely possible.

How does a French court decide guilt?

French courts do not apply a list of admissible proofs or a fixed numerical standard. The judge forms a conviction from the material debated at the hearing. That is why the way evidence enters the file and is discussed there carries as much weight as the evidence itself.

Evidence and the judge's inner conviction

Unless legislation provides otherwise, an offence may be established by any mode of evidence, and the judge decides according to their inner conviction (intime conviction). This is the rule laid down in Article 427 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The same article limits the judge to evidence brought before the court and open to adversarial discussion.

At a cour d'assises, Article 353 asks judges and jurors to consider both the evidence and the defence before deciding whether they hold an inner conviction. Its current version has applied since 1 January 2023. In practice, material the defence has never been able to discuss cannot properly ground the verdict.

Is the test beyond reasonable doubt?

No English-style formula exists in French legislation. The French standard of proof in criminal cases is inner conviction, not proof beyond reasonable doubt. In England and Wales, by contrast, the prosecution must make the court sure of guilt.

Two rules limit what the prosecution can rely on. Under Article 428, a confession does not automatically establish guilt, because judges assess its weight like any other evidence. Under Article 429, a police report has evidential value only if it is formally regular, its author acted within their functions, and it records what that author personally saw, heard or established.

Limits on contested evidence

Under Article 430, police reports recording offences generally provide information for the court to consider. Special statutes can give particular official reports stronger evidential force and prescribe how contrary proof must be produced. A matter of vigilance: identify early which regime applies to each report in your file.

Unlawfully obtained evidence is not automatically excluded in every French case. The defence may challenge its weight or the way it was obtained, or seek annulment of the procedural act. On 9 December 2019, the Cour de cassation held that an investigative stratagem is not unlawful in itself. Provoking the offence, or circumventing procedural rules so as to undermine an essential safeguard, can however lead to nullity.

What protects you during police questioning?

The presumption of innocence becomes concrete at the police station. Two very different regimes exist there: the voluntary interview and police custody. Knowing which one you are under determines what police officers may do and which rights you can invoke straight away.

A voluntary interview is not custody

A person attending a voluntary police interview, or audition libre, is legally free to leave, although a police summons must normally be obeyed. Several protections apply from the start:

• Information on the allegation: you must be told the nature, date and place of the alleged offence.

• Right to silence: you must be informed that you may decline to answer.

• Access to a lawyer: available where the offence is punishable by imprisonment.

The written record of the interview can become part of the criminal file. If it does not accurately reflect what you said, you can refuse to sign it, and that refusal is itself recorded.

When garde à vue is permitted

Police custody (garde à vue) requires valid grounds to suspect a crime or an imprisonable offence. It must also be the only means of achieving a statutory investigative purpose, such as preserving evidence, preventing pressure on witnesses or collusion, or ensuring presentation to the prosecutor.

A judicial police officer can order custody on their own initiative or on a prosecutor's instruction, but must inform the prosecutor immediately. The clock starts at the relevant point of detention, which may come before arrival at the station. This distinction matters when calculating whether a time limit has been exceeded.

Ordinary custody lasts up to 24 hours initially. It can generally be extended by up to 24 further hours, making 48, subject to statutory conditions and authorisation. For specified serious cases the conditional maximums are 72 or 96 hours, and 120 or 144 hours in narrower situations. The 120-hour narcotics provision requires medical confirmation and judicial authorisation for its additional 24 hours.

Information, silence and a lawyer

In a language you understand, you must be told why you are held, the suspected offence and how long custody may last. Under Article 63-1, once you have given your identity, you may make statements, answer questions or remain silent. On 19 September 2025, the Constitutional Council confirmed that this right to silence follows from the privilege against self-incrimination. You may also request a medical examination, an interpreter and, as a foreign national, consular notification. The custody record of these requests can prove decisive in a later challenge. You may ask for a chosen or court-appointed lawyer at any point. If your chosen lawyer cannot be reached or cannot attend within two hours, the bâtonnier can appoint one, under rules that have applied since 1 July 2024. The lawyer may speak with you privately for up to 30 minutes, inspect specified documents, attend questioning and add observations to the record. A prosecutor may allow an urgent interview to begin before the lawyer arrives only in specified circumstances. Cabinet Georges Parastatis warns that statements made without a prior strategy can have lasting consequences. That is why our criminal defence work in Paris begins with early assistance and scrutiny of the initial material before you say anything.

How does the presumption survive until verdict?

The French criminal justice system allows significant restrictions on a suspect before trial. Each stage of criminal procedure, from investigation to appeal, still treats you as innocent. The safeguards differ at each stage, and so do the deadlines that protect them.

Investigation and access to the case

A French case may proceed through a flagrancy, preliminary or judicial investigation. Article 79 makes a preparatory judicial investigation mandatory for crimes. The investigating judge gathers evidence both for and against the suspect, and does not decide guilt at trial.

Formal placement under judicial investigation (mise en examen) requires serious or concordant indications that you took part in the offence, not proof of guilt. From then on, you can access the file and request investigative steps. Before an interrogation or confrontation, Article 114 generally requires your lawyer to be called five working days in advance, with the file available four working days in advance.

• Nullity under Article 170: an investigative act or document may be challenged before the investigation chamber. A challenge to the form of a mise en examen is normally due within six months of the first interrogation.

• Closing observations under Article 175: at the end of the investigation, you have one month if detained, or three months otherwise.

• Further submissions: an additional 10 days follow for supplementary observations.

Cabinet Georges Parastatis compares the allegations with the chronology and the material in the file, and requests investigative or expert work where it is needed. In our defence against sexual assault allegations, we examine telephone data, messages and physical evidence, together with the methodology and limits of the expert reports.

Pre-trial detention without a conviction

A juge des libertés et de la détention decides on pre-trial detention after an adversarial hearing at which both you and your lawyer can be heard. Alternatives include judicial supervision (contrôle judiciaire) and electronic home detention.

According to official guidance, the initial detention period is four months for an ordinary qualifying délit and one year for a crime. Extensions and maximum periods vary by offence, so no single maximum applies to every case.

A placement order, or a refusal of a later release application, can generally be appealed within 10 days. What matters in this situation is that this window closes quickly.

Trial, appeal and practical support

At trial, the defence can challenge the evidence, and you keep your right to silence. The tribunal correctionnel hears délits. Serious crimes go to a departmental criminal court or to a cour d'assises, where a lawyer is compulsory. For a defence before the French assize court, we prepare clients for questioning and for the oral, adversarial hearing. A case can end without conviction through discontinuance, a non-lieu, a relaxe for a délit or an acquittement for a crime. The ordinary appeal period is generally 10 days, and another party then generally has a further five days to lodge an incidental appeal.

French legal aid can cover all or part of qualifying defence costs. The annual reference-income bands for a single-person household are:

Annual reference income	Legal aid coverage
Up to €12,957	100%
€12,958 – €15,316	55%
€15,317 – €19,433	25%

Criminal proceedings are an exception to the habitual-residence rule, so a British defendant should not assume that nationality alone rules them out. An appeal against a refusal or a partial grant is generally due within 15 days of notification.