E/CN.4/1995/31/Add.4 page 7 The provincial courts have jurisdiction for any offences which are not within the jurisdiction of the district courts. If they wish, they may even hear cases within the jurisdiction of those courts. In criminal matters, the Supreme Court has jurisdiction in the first and last resort for particularly serious and complicated cases. 21. Starting from the day when it receives the file of the proceedings transmitted by the prosecutor’s office together with the indictment, the judge has a period of 45 days for the least serious offences and a period of 3 months for more serious offences in which to study the case and decide to try it, to order a further investigation or to dismiss the case temporarily or definitively. When the case is complicated, the president of the court may increase the period of 45 days by a further period not to exceed 30 days. Where it is decided that the case should be tried, the court must do so within 15 days. This decision must be notified to the untried prisoner or accused person, his counsel and that of the defence within 10 days before the start of the trial. The notification must state the name, date and place of birth, occupation and address of the accused person, the offence with which he is charged and the articles of the Penal Code which provide for and punish it, the date, time and place of the trial, the names of the judge, the people’s co-magistrates and the clerk of the court, the name of the representative of the Department of Public Prosecutions at the trial, the names of the lawyer and the interpreter, if any, the names of any persons summoned to be heard by the court and the material evidence submitted for assessment by the court. (i) Composition of the trial court 22. The trial court is composed of a panel of judges. It usually sits with one judge and two people’s co-magistrates. In serious and complicated cases, however, there can be two or three judges and co-magistrates. Where the accused is liable to the death penalty, there will be three judges, assisted by three co-magistrates (art. 160). (ii) Proceedings 23. The proceedings before the court are public, except for those held in camera on substantiated grounds, and are oral. They are conducted by the presiding judge, who is in charge of court policing. During these proceedings, the court asks questions and hears the statements on the facts by the accused, the claimant for criminal indemnification, his counsel, witnesses, experts, etc. It examines the material evidence brought against the accused. A judgement can, moreover, be handed down only on the basis of material evidence examined during the trial (art. 159, para. 1). The trial must take place in the presence of the accused and possibly of his counsel, except where he is on the run or outside the national territory and it is not possible to lay hands on him or where his absence is not likely to obstruct the proceedings. (iii) Pronouncement of sentence 24. The right to rule in the case belongs exclusively to the judges and the co-magistrates, who must take a decision on each question separately by majority vote. A member in the minority is entitled to request that his