DE CUBBER v. BELGIUM JUGDMENT 6 accused, hear witnesses (Articles 71 to 86 and 92 of the same Code), confront witnesses with each other (Article 942 of the Judicial Code), visit the scene of the crime (Article 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), visit and search premises (Articles 87 and 88 of the same Code), take possession of evidence (Article 89), and so on. The investigating judge has to report to the chambre du conseil on the cases with which he is dealing (Article 127); he takes, by means of an order, decisions on the expediency of measures requested by the public prosecutor’s department, such orders being subject to an appeal to the chambre des mises en accusation of the Court of Appeal. 18. When the investigation is completed, the investigating judge transmits the case-file to the procureur du Roi, who will return it to him with his submissions (Article 61, first paragraph). It is then for the chambre du conseil, which is composed of a single judge belonging to the court of first instance (Acts of 25 October 1919, 26 July 1927 and 18 August 1928), to decide - unless it considers it should order further inquiries - whether to discharge the accused (non-lieu; Article 128 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), to commit him for trial before a district court (tribunal de police; Article 129) or a criminal court (tribunal correctionnel; Article 130) or to send the papers to the procureur général attached to the Court of Appeal (Article 133), depending upon the circumstances. Unlike his French counterpart, the Belgian investigating judge is thus never empowered to refer a case to the trial court himself. Before taking its decision, the chambre du conseil - which sits in camera - will hear the investigating judge’s report. This report will take the form of an oral account of the state of the investigations; the investigating judge will express no opinion therein as to the accused’s guilt, it being for the public prosecutor’s department to deliver concluding submissions calling for one decision or another. B. Investigating judges and incompatibilities 19. Article 292 of the 1967 Judicial Code prohibits "the concurrent exercise of different judicial functions ... except where otherwise provided by law"; it lays down that "any decision given by a judge who has previously dealt with the case in the exercise of some other judicial function" shall be null and void. This rule applies to investigating judges, amongst others. Article 127 specifies that "proceedings before an assize court shall be null and void if the presiding judge or another judge sitting is a judicial officer who has acted in the case as investigating judge ...". Neither can an investigating judge sit as an appeal-court judge, for otherwise he would have "to review on appeal, and thus as last-instance trial judge, the legality of investigation measures ... which [he] had taken or