CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE

PART II
ON ORDINARY PROCEDURES

TITLE I
ON INVESTIGATION

CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION III
DETENTION

Article 217
Purpose

1. Detention as referred to in the following articles is carried out for the purpose of :

(a) within seventy two hours, bringing the person under detention to court in an expedited proceeding or presenting that person to the judge for his or her first judicial questioning or for the imposition of a restrictive measure ; or

(b) ensuring that the person under detention is immediately brought before the judicial authority in a procedural act or, this not being feasible, at the earliest opportunity, but under no circumstances shall it be done after the seventy-two-hour deadline.

2. The judge may order the detention of any procedural participant other that a legal practitioner, magistrate or public defender as a means of ensuring the immediate appearance of that person in a procedural act from which he or she has been absent without justification.