5 DE CUBBER v. BELGIUM JUGDMENT A. Status and powers of investigating judges 15. Investigating judges, who are appointed by the Crown "from among the judges of the court of first instance" (Article 79 of the Judicial Code), conduct the preparatory judicial investigation (Articles 61 et seq. of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The object of this procedure is to assemble the evidence and to establish any proof against the accused as well as any circumstances that may tell in his favour, so as to provide the chambre du conseil or the chambre des mises en accusation, as the case may be, with the material which it needs to decide whether the accused should be committed for trial. The procedure is secret; it is not conducted in the presence of both parties (non contradictoire) nor is there any legal representation. The investigating judge also has the status of officer of the criminal investigation police (police judiciaire). In this capacity, he is empowered to inquire into serious and lesser offences (crimes et délits), to assemble evidence and to receive complaints from any person claiming to have been prejudiced by such offences (Articles 8, 9 in fine and 63 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). When so acting, he is placed under the "supervision of the procureur général (State prosecutor)" (Article 279 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Article 148 of the Judicial Code), although this does not include a power to give directions. "In all cases where the suspected offender is deemed to have been caught in the act", the investigating judge may take "directly" and in person "any action which the procureur du Roi (public prosecutor) is empowered to take" (Article 59 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). 16. Save in the latter category of case, the investigating judge can take action only after the matter has been referred to him either by means of a formal request from the procureur du Roi for the opening of an inquiry (Articles 47, 54, 60, 61, 64 and 138 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) or by means of a criminal complaint coupled with a claim for damages (constitution de partie civile; Articles 63 and 70). If a court includes several investigating judges, it is for the presiding judge to allocate cases amongst them. In principle, cases are assigned to them in turn, from week to week; however, this is not an inflexible rule and the presiding judge may depart therefrom, for example if the matter is urgent or if a new case has some connection with one that has already been allocated. 17. In order to facilitate the ascertainment of the truth, the investigating judge is invested with wide powers; according to the case-law of the Court of Cassation, he may "take any steps which are not forbidden by law or incompatible with the standing of his office" (judgment of 2 May 1960, Pasicrisie 1960, I, p. 1020). He can, inter alia, summon the accused to appear or issue a warrant for his detention, production before a court or arrest (Articles 91 et seq. of the Code of Criminal Procedure); question the