Cross-border criminal case lawyer: extradition and France

Under Article 695-27 of the French Criminal Procedure Code, a person arrested in France on a surrender warrant must be brought before the prosecutor-general within 48 hours. A lawyer for a cross-border criminal case works inside that window.

Which warrant or alert has reached France?

Arrest warrants and extradition requests share a vocabulary but not a legal regime. When a person is arrested, the first assessment turns on what document exists, which state issued it and for what purpose. Every later decision, from consent to release, depends on that first reading.

Identify the measure and the countries involved

Four questions come first in a cross-border criminal case: where you are, which country seeks you, whether it seeks prosecution or enforcement of a sentence, and what warrant, request or alert actually exists. The answers determine which jurisdictions and which legal systems govern the case. International criminal law is a framework, not one court, and each state applies its own procedure.

A European arrest warrant remains a mechanism between EU states. For new UK–France cases, surrender warrants under the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement replaced it on 1 January 2021. An arrest made before 11 pm on 31 December 2020 may still fall under transitional rules. When France seeks someone in the UK, France is a category 1 territory under Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003. A UK request for someone in France engages Part 3 on the UK side and French procedure in France.

Check what the surrender warrant permits

Under Article 599 of the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, a warrant seeks prosecution or the execution of a custodial sentence or detention order, not questioning alone. A prosecution offence must carry a maximum custodial penalty of at least 12 months. An existing sentence or detention order must be at least four months. These are eligibility thresholds, not predictions of the sentence.

When France requests surrender from the UK, the National Crime Agency validates the warrant, but a court decides on surrender. The venues are Westminster Magistrates' Court, Edinburgh Sheriff Court and Belfast Magistrates' Court. The extradition hearing should normally begin within 21 days of arrest, and permission to appeal must normally be sought within 14 days. These are UK deadlines, not those of an arrest in France.

Distinguish alerts from executable warrants

An international arrest warrant is not one uniform instrument. Behind the expression may sit a national warrant, a European arrest warrant, a Schengen alert or a police request. A foreign judicial warrant is not automatically executable in France: an extradition request is examined by the investigating chamber, which gives a reasoned opinion on its legality.

INTERPOL Red Notices ask law enforcement authorities to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending surrender; they are neither a warrant nor proof of guilt, and most cannot be searched by the public. INTERPOL's Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files accepts requests to access, correct or delete data, a route Gparastatis-avocat uses in its defence against Red Notices and extradition. Removing an alert does not end the underlying national warrant.

What happens after an arrest in France?

Two timetables can run at once: French police custody for any French offence, and the surrender procedure for the foreign request. What matters in this situation is knowing which clock applies, because each carries its own rights and its own hearings.

Protect rights in the first hours

In French police custody, you may request a criminal lawyer, an interpreter, a medical examination, and you may remain silent; a foreign national may ask for consular notification. Interviews normally take place with the lawyer present unless that right is waived. Statements made before legal advice can carry evidential weight that is difficult to undo. After arrest on a surrender warrant or an ordinary extradition request, Articles 695-27 and 696-10 require presentation to the prosecutor-general within 48 hours, with access to the file for your lawyer.

Follow the French hearing timetable

Under Articles 695-29 to 695-36 of the French Criminal Procedure Code, the investigating chamber of the court of appeal sets the pace of extradition proceedings. Each stage carries its own deadline:

• First appearance: within five working days of presentation to the prosecutor-general, covering identity, consent and the surrender request.

• Decision on consent: normally within seven days of the appearance if you consent, or 20 days if you contest surrender.

• Supplementary information: if the chamber requests it, it must arrive within a maximum of 10 days.

Article 615 of the 2021 UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement adds overall targets: a final decision within 10 days of consent, or 60 days of arrest if surrender is contested. A further 30 days is possible in a specified delayed case, once reasons are communicated.

Address release and handover

Detention is not automatic throughout the procedure. Under Article 696-19 of the French Criminal Procedure Code, the defence may seek release, and the investigating chamber may attach judicial supervision or electronic monitoring. Gparastatis-avocat seeks release at this stage as part of its criminal defence work in Paris.

Surrender ordinarily occurs within 10 days of the final decision, under French provisions and Article 621 of the agreement; serious humanitarian reasons may justify a new date. Missing that period while you remain detained requires release from detention, not necessarily cancellation of the case. A separate French prosecution may postpone surrender, and under Article 624 the issuing state must deduct detention served on the warrant.

Should you challenge or consent to extradition?

The decision frequently turns on whether a real ground of refusal exists in the file. Consent shortens the procedure; a challenge preserves safeguards. In my assessment, neither choice should be made before the warrant itself has been read with counsel.

Test the legal grounds for refusal

The 2021 UK–EU agreement sets the framework: Article 597 establishes proportionality, Article 600 lists mandatory refusal grounds and Article 601 optional ones. Articles 602 to 604 address political offences, nationality exceptions and specified guarantees. Double criminality asks whether the conduct is criminal in both states, not whether offence names match. An allegation of fraud alone neither establishes nor defeats a challenge.

A human-rights objection needs case-specific evidence: political persecution, discriminatory motive, prison conditions, an unfair trial. The risk of treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights is examined within the conditions of French extradition law, alongside limitation and speciality.

Examine the warrant and personal circumstances

Warrant validity, identity, missing documents, a final decision on the same acts, limitation periods and a conviction in absence all require examination. A defective request may be clarified or returned rather than refused outright. Under the French rules for non-EU warrants, French nationality, including at the time of the alleged acts, can prevent surrender. British nationality alone does not.

Residence and family life in France do not themselves prevent surrender. On 23 November 2022, in appeal no. 22-86.162, the Court of Cassation upheld the surrender of a British resident with a spouse, three France-born children and work in France. The particular gravity of the alleged acts made surrender proportionate.

Understand consent and speciality

Consent to surrender in France is irrevocable under Articles 695-29 to 695-36. It therefore requires advice based on the actual warrant and the available objections before it is given. Consent and waiver of the speciality rule are separate decisions: speciality normally bars prosecution after surrender for earlier, different acts outside the surrender decision, subject to exceptions.

A contested decision of the investigating chamber may be challenged before the Court of Cassation. The filing period is short, and French counsel must calculate it from the actual decision, not from an estimate.

How should lawyers in two countries coordinate?

An international allegation does not automatically require two lawyers. Where surrender proceedings and the underlying case are active in different jurisdictions, separate local defence will often be needed. The distinction that carries weight here is which court each lawyer actually appears before.

Assign each lawyer the right proceedings

For an arrest in France on a UK request, a French advocate handles detention and surrender before French authorities. UK counsel addresses the originating warrant or prosecution. A UK solicitor cannot replace the French advocate before French courts.

When France seeks someone in the UK, a UK extradition solicitor handles the UK surrender case while a French advocate addresses the French allegations. The UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement recognises the right to appoint a lawyer in the issuing state to assist the lawyer in the state of arrest.

Coordinate statements and evidence

Before answering a cross-border summons, establish whether you are a suspect, a witness or an injured party, and what the allegation is. A statement may affect proceedings in more than one country. A witness questioned by a French judicial police officer may remain silent, but has no right to a lawyer as a witness alone.

Coordinated legal advice in both jurisdictions aligns the chronology, warrants, disclosure, translations, evidence from witnesses and detention issues. That alignment can help keep advice given in one country from producing a contradictory statement in the other.

Mutual legal assistance concerns the gathering of evidence and documents, not the surrender of a person. In cross-border investigations, counsel identifies which authority obtained a phone extraction, bank record or translation, and how international legal cooperation allows it to be used.

Choose and instruct French counsel

A useful first assessment draws on the warrant or notice, summonses, rulings, correspondence from foreign authorities, available translations and a brief chronology. Check registration with a French bar, experience before the court handling the surrender, availability during custody and the ability to work in your language. A foreign network is not a formally instructed French advocate.

Cabinet Georges Parastatis intervenes urgently in custody, prepares arguments before the investigating chamber and works with foreign lawyers to contest the request at its source. Hearings and documents in French courts are in French, a point developed in our guide to criminal court representation in France. Consultations by videoconference are available to clients abroad.

What does cross-border defence cost?

Cost follows the number of proceedings, not the existence of a warrant. One point worth knowing: legal aid, professional fees and court charges are three distinct questions, each decided in its own country.

Check legal-aid eligibility separately

In France, an eligible person may seek an appointed lawyer or French legal aid. Under Article 3 of the French legal-aid law in force from 15 July 2024, the usual residence condition does not apply in criminal proceedings. Resources, assets and other cover remain relevant.

An urgent hearing may justify provisional legal aid, but appointment of a lawyer does not prove that representation is funded. A request for an English-speaking appointed lawyer does not guarantee one.

• England and Wales: court representation depends on financial eligibility and an interests-of-justice test.

• Police-station advice: funded under a separate arrangement from court representation.

• No cross-funding: UK legal aid does not automatically fund a French advocate, and the reverse holds.

Each legal-aid application is therefore made in the country of the proceedings it is meant to cover.

Define professional fees and scope

Cross-border defence has no single standard fee. Separate proceedings, evidence volume, custody applications, hearings, appeals, translations, experts, travel and two legal teams all change the scope.

French public-service guidance states that an advocate's fees are generally set in a written agreement stating the calculation method and expected expenses, except in urgent or force-majeure cases.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court, Crown Prosecution Service policy from 1 January 2025 sets requested contributions for standard single-defendant cases: £100 when surrender is ordered at the first hearing and £100 per interim hearing. A contested hearing carries £650. The court decides whether payment is ordered.

Separate court charges from lawyer fees

For a separate French conviction, Article 1018 A of the French tax code, 1 January 2026 version, sets fixed charges of €62 for a penal order and €254 for a correctional-court decision. A defined non-appearance situation carries €508. A warrant alone incurs none of them.

French legal aid does not cover these criminal-court charges or fines imposed on the beneficiary, as the rules on French legal aid specify. It also excludes the €13 advocacy fee, subject to exemptions.

Article 628 of the 2021 UK–EU agreement allocates the expense of executing a warrant between states. It creates no general fee payable simply because you are sought.