Circumstances and persons concerned

Senators and deputies, magistrates of the Supreme Court, secretaries of State and the Attorney General are liable for common crimes that they may commit during, and also for crimes, offences, or omissions that they incur in the exercise of, their office (Article 108 of the Constitution). The President, during his term of office, may be impeached only for treason and serious common crimes.

Modalities and procedure

If the offence is of a common order, the Chamber of Deputies, acting as a grand jury, determines, by an absolute majority of votes of its total membership, whether or not there are grounds for proceeding against the accused. The Senate, constituted as a grand jury, takes cognisance of all official offences. In addition, any person has the right to denounce before the Chamber of Deputies the common or official offences of high officials. Whenever the Chamber finds that there are grounds for impeachment, it appoints a Committee from among its members to sustain before the Senate the charges brought. The President may request from the Chamber the removal, for bad conduct, of any members of the Supreme Court and of certain magistrates and judges.

Consequences

For offences of a common order, if the finding is negative, there are no grounds for any further proceedings. If the finding is affirmative, the accused is thereby suspended from office and is immediately subject to action by the ordinary courts, except in the case of the President, who may be impeached only before the Senate (as also in the case of an official offence). If after conducting such proceedings as deemed advisable and hearing the accused, the senators decide by a two-thirds majority that the accused is guilty, the latter is removed from office and disqualified from holding any other office for a certain period.

Whenever the law provides another penalty for the same act, the accused is placed at the disposal of the regular authorities, who judge and punish him or her according to such law. The decisions of the grand jury and the findings of the Chamber of Deputies are final. In the other cases, if the Chamber of Deputies first and the Senate thereafter decide by an absolute majority of votes that the request is justified, the accused official is removed from office immediately, independently of the legal liability that may have been incurred, and the executive proceeds with a new appointment.

Have these procedures been applied?   No