Court of appeal (Belgium)
A special chamber is the chamber of indictment (Dutch: kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling, French: chambre des mises en accusation, German: Anklagekammer), which hears appeals in judicial investigations and decides on certain indictments (see further below).
[1][2][4] A judge in the court of appeal is called a counsellor (Dutch: raadsheer, French: conseiller, German: Gerichtsrat).
The counsellor who holds the overall leadership position of the court of appeal is referred to as the 'first president' or 'first chairman' (Dutch: eerste voorzitter, French: premier président, German: erster Präsident).
The prosecutor-general also leads the auditorate-general (Dutch: auditoraat-generaal, French: auditorat général, German: Generalauditorat) attached to the corresponding court of labour.
In some social-criminal cases, the auditorate-general prosecutes (suspected) offenders before the court of appeal instead of the prosecutor-general's office.
The judgements made by the tribunals of first instance and the enterprise tribunals in petty civil cases where the disputed amount does not exceed 2,500 euro (as of September 2018) cannot be appealed to the courts of appeal however, except when the case concerns a tax dispute.
In these cases, the tribunals of first instance have already exercised appellate review; these judgements are thus final (except for an appeal in cassation).
The process of correctionalisation requires the prosecutor to assume the existence of extenuating circumstances, and results in the crime being tried by the correctional section of a tribunal of first instance instead of a court of assizes.
When a crime is not correctionalised and thus is to be tried by a court of assizes, the council chamber must send the case to the chamber of indictment, which will decide on the charges and deliver an indictment (Dutch: inbeschuldigingstelling, French: mise en accusation, German: Versetzung in den Anklagezustand) if sufficient indications of guilt exist.
[1][2][9] Since January 2017, the court of appeal of Brussels has a special section referred to as the Market Court (Dutch: Marktenhof, French: Cour des Marchés, German: Märktegerichtshof), which has exclusive jurisdiction over appeals against decisions made by regulators and administrative authorities regarding certain regulated markets.
The Market Court hears cases in Dutch and French, and is chaired by a panel of three counsellors who are experienced in economic or financial law.
This provision is referred to as privilege of jurisdiction (Dutch: voorrecht van rechtsmacht, French: privilège de juridiction, German: Gerichtsbarkeitsvorrecht).
In these exceptional criminal cases, the (suspected) offenders are tried directly by the court of appeal instead of the correctional section of the tribunal of first instance.
According to these provisions, ministers can only be investigated, indicted or tried for any crime committed in the exercise of their office by the court of appeal which has jurisdiction over the place where the seat of their government is.
Crimes committed by ministers outside of their office that are being prosecuted during their tenure, can be tried or indicted by any court of appeal, according to the ordinary territorial rules.
Whilst they are otherwise subject to the same rules of criminal jurisdiction as any ordinary person, article 59 of the Belgian Constitution establishes that coercive or intrusive investigatory measures (such as house searches) against a member of a federal or regional legislative assembly can only be ordered by the first president of a court of appeal, who needs to inform the president of the assembly involved of any such measure taken.
