BERNARD JUDGMENT OF 23 APRIL 1998 11 II. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 6 OF THE CONVENTION 31. The applicant submitted that the comments made by the two psychiatric experts at his trial on 9 June 1992 in the Rhône Assize Court had infringed his right to a fair trial and the principle of the presumption of innocence. He argued that this had breached Article 6 §§ 1 and 2 of the Convention, which provide: “1. In the determination of … any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair … hearing ... by [a] … tribunal... 2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.” 32. The Government contended that the way the psychiatrists gave evidence at the trial, regard being had to the content of the reports they had filed during the investigation, had not infringed the applicant’s right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence. They observed that experts were not members of the court called upon to determine whether a defendant was guilty, nor was it their role to take part in establishing whether he had committed the acts he stood accused of. The sole purpose of their contribution was to assess the defendant’s personality, in order to determine in particular to what extent he was responsible for his actions at the time of the offence, supposing that it had been proved that an offence had been committed. In other words, the opinions expressed by the psychiatric experts in carrying out their assignment did not have any bearing on either the investigations conducted by the investigating judge about the facts which had given rise to the prosecution or the way the defendant’s guilt was determined. 33. The Government submitted that the questions raised in the present case had to be determined in the light of the general context of the proceedings as a whole, which necessarily meant, according to French law, that the pre-trial investigation stage had to be included in the overall consideration of the Assize Court proceedings. The fresh consideration of all the charges against a defendant followed extensive proceedings during which all the offences of which he stood accused had been looked into, first by the investigating judge and then by the Indictment Division of the Court of Appeal. In the present case Mr Bernard had been committed for trial in the Rhône Assize Court pursuant to a decision taken on 11 October 1991 by the Indictment Division of the Lyons Court of Appeal after hearing his lawyers. That hearing had given them a perfect opportunity to raise the complaints