French Code of Criminal Procedure
In forceThe records in the automated national criminal record are deleted in the following cases:
1° Upon the death of the holder of the record, established in particular by the entry made in the civil status register of births pursuant to Article 79 of the Civil Code or, where the death has not been brought to the attention of the automated national criminal records department, when the holder has reached the age of one hundred and twenty ;
2° When the conviction mentioned on the record has been entirely erased by amnesty or when the forty-year period provided for in the third paragraph of Article 769 or the time limits set out in 1°, 4° and 5° of this article;
3° Where the person concerned has obtained a decision to rectify the criminal record, the withdrawal is made, depending on the case, at the behest of the public prosecutor or the public prosecutor at the court that made the decision;
4° Where the convicted person lodges an objection or where the Court of Cassation annuls the decision by application of the Articles 620 or 624-7, the withdrawal is made by order of the public prosecutor or the public prosecutor at the court that issued the decision that has lapsed; the same applies in the case provided for by Article 498-1;
5° For records relating to the penal compositions referred to in 6° of Article 769, on expiry of a period of three years, if the person concerned has not, during this period, been sentenced to a criminal or correctional penalty or executed a penal composition ; if this is not the case, the record is not withdrawn until the record relating to this conviction or the new penal composition is deleted;
6° For the records provided for by 7° of Article 769, on expiry of a period of three years, if the person concerned has not, during this period, either been sentenced to a criminal or correctional penalty or completed a penal composition, or been the subject of a new measure ordered pursuant to the aforementioned provisions of the said Order; if this is not the case, the record will not be withdrawn until the record relating to this conviction or the new settlement has been deleted;
7° Where the court has expressly ordered, pursuant to the provisions of Article 798 or l'article 798-1, the removal from the criminal record of a conviction for which a pardon has been granted ;
8° In the case of convictions handed down by a foreign court, upon receipt of the erasure notice from the convicting State or following a withdrawal decision ordered by a French court. However, if the conviction was handed down by a court in a Member State of the European Union, the withdrawal of the record ordered by a French court pursuant to Article 770-1 shall not prevent the file from being forwarded, where appropriate, to the competent authorities of the other Member States of the European Union.
