Arrested in France? What happens next

Police custody: how long it lasts

Police custody, garde à vue, is the period during which the police may hold a suspect for questioning. It lasts 24 hours, and can be extended once by 24 hours with the public prosecutor’s authorisation, when the offence carries at least one year in prison. For organised crime and drug trafficking, a judge may authorise further extensions, up to 96 hours in total, and 120 hours for a person who has swallowed drugs in order to carry them (law of 13 June 2025). Since a law of 18 August 2026, a single extra 24-hour extension, 72 hours in total, also exists for organised fraud, money laundering and similar offences.

At the end of custody, the person is either released, with or without a summons to appear later, or brought before the prosecutor, who decides what happens next.

Your rights from the first minute

The police must inform you of these rights at the very beginning, in a language you understand. If they do not, the whole procedure can be challenged.

• An interpreter, free of charge, for every notification and every interview if you do not speak French well enough.
• The right to remain silent. You may answer, make a statement, or say nothing. Silence cannot be held against you.
• A lawyer, immediately. You may ask for a lawyer of your choice or a duty lawyer. The lawyer meets you privately for thirty minutes, then sits beside you during every interview and confrontation. Since a law of 22 April 2024, once you have asked for a lawyer you cannot be questioned about the facts without them, unless you expressly waive that right and the waiver is recorded in the official report. Only a prosecutor or a judge can postpone the lawyer’s presence, for compelling reasons, by a written and reasoned decision.
• To inform a relative, your employer, and your consulate. As a foreign national, you have a specific right to have your country’s consular authorities notified.
• A medical examination, by a doctor, at your request.
• To know why: the nature and the date of the alleged offence, and the reasons for your custody.

What the lawyer does during custody

The lawyer comes to the police station, day or night, reads the custody file to check that each right has been properly notified, prepares the interview with you in private, and remains present throughout. She can ask questions at the end of each interview and have her observations recorded. A right that was not notified, or a lawyer who was not called, may lead to the nullity of the measure and of everything that followed.

You do not need to have money with you, and you do not need to know French law. You need to say one sentence to the police officer: “I want a lawyer.”

After custody: the four possible paths

• Release, with no further action, or with a summons to appear before the criminal court at a later date.
• Immediate trial (comparution immédiate): for certain offences, the prosecutor can have you tried the same day. The court may only try you immediately with your consent, given in the presence of your lawyer. You have the right to ask for time to prepare your defence: the trial is then postponed to a date between four and ten weeks later, and the court decides whether you wait free, under judicial supervision, or in custody.
• A plea procedure (CRPC): the prosecutor proposes a sentence, which you accept or refuse with your lawyer; if you accept, a judge must still approve it in open court.
• A judicial investigation (instruction), led by an investigating judge, mandatory for the most serious offences (crimes). It can last months or years. At the first hearing before the judge, you are either formally placed under investigation (mise en examen) or given the more protective status of assisted witness. Your lawyer has access to the file beforehand.

Pre-trial detention

During a judicial investigation, a specialised judge, the juge des libertés et de la détention, decides after an adversarial hearing whether you remain free, are placed under judicial supervision (with obligations such as reporting to the police, or a ban on leaving the country), or are held in pre-trial detention. Detention must remain the exception and is strictly limited in time: four months for most offences, renewable within limits; one year for crimes, renewable by six-month periods. Every placement and every extension can be appealed within ten days, and a request for release may be filed at any time, one at a time.

Foreign nationals are often held on the ground that they have no address in France. A lawyer can build the guarantees that change that assessment: a place to stay, a person who vouches for you, a passport handed over.

How family abroad can help

• Call a lawyer, not the police station. The police will not give you information; the lawyer will, within the limits of professional secrecy.
• Gather documents that show who the person is: employment, studies, housing, family ties, medical history. Send them to the lawyer by email. They matter within hours if an immediate trial or a detention hearing takes place.
• Contact your consulate. It can visit a detained national, help with an interpreter, and inform the family.
• Do not send money to anyone who contacts you claiming to be able to obtain a release. Only a lawyer can act, and a lawyer will send you a written fee agreement first.

Fees

The firm works under a written fee agreement, signed before any intervention, which states the amount and what it covers. A first assessment of your situation is given frankly, including the financial side, before any commitment. Legal aid may be available depending on your resources, and legal-expenses cover included in a home, car or credit-card insurance policy sometimes pays part of the fees: say so at the first contact, it is checked immediately.

About the firm

Naïri Zadourian is a criminal defence lawyer admitted to the Paris Bar. She defends at every stage of criminal proceedings, from police custody to the execution of sentences, before courts across France, including the Cour d’assises (the jury court for the most serious crimes) and the specialised inter-regional courts for organised crime. She also practises prison law: disciplinary hearings, conditions of detention, and sentence adjustments. She speaks English.