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Criminal law can be divided into formal and substantive law. Substantive law is basically regulated in the Swiss Criminal Code. Further norms can be found in laws of secondary criminal law such as the Narcotics Act or the Weapons Act. Our attorneys at law for criminal law in St. Gallen, Zurich or Frauenfeld can provide you with information on the existing criminal norms. Formal law serves to enforce substantive law and is primarily regulated in the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure. In order for criminal law to be applicable and a criminal procedural investigation to be permitted, an initial suspicion is necessary. Without a suspicion, police law (for danger prevention) is applicable, but not criminal law.
In Swiss criminal procedural law, various principles of criminal procedure must be observed in every case. In the following blog post, some of them are briefly presented. An attorney at law for litigation in St. Gallen will be happy to provide you with further information in this regard. The presumption of innocence is one of the most important principles of criminal proceedings under the rule of law. Accordingly, every accused person is presumed innocent until a final conviction has been ruled. This is anchored in Art. 10 para. 1 of the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure.
Furthermore, the principle of publicity pursuant to Art. 69 CrimPC applies in Switzerland. Proceedings before the court of first instance, the court of appeal and the oral passing of judgements are public. The public may only be excluded in order to protect certain interests. In general, the preliminary proceedings, the proceedings before the compulsory measures courts, proceedings before the objections authority before the court of appeal, written appeal proceedings and proceedings for summary penalty order proceedings are not public.
The principle of “in dubio pro reo” under Article 10(3) of the CrimPC states that substantial and insurmountable doubts in the assessment of evidence must be weighed in favor of the accused. In case of doubt, the court must decide in favor of the accused. The right to be heard is granted to the parties in proceedings (Art. 29 para. 2 FC). The right to be heard includes aspects such as the right to inspect files, the right to make statements and the right to participate in the gathering of evidence or the clarification of the facts. An attorney for criminal law in Frauenfeld, Zurich or St. Gallen will be happy to assist you in exercising your right in a criminal case. Furthermore, there is a principle of expeditiousness stated in Art. 5 CrimPC. According to this, proceedings should be conducted immediately and without unjustified delays.
The principle of the statutory, independent and impartial judge is central. Judges in proceedings must be provided for by law, they must be independent (separation of powers; judiciary independent of the executive and the legislature) as well as impartial (avoidance of extraneous influences on the decision; kinship/ personal interest/ prior referral/ enmity etc. (Art. 56 CrimPC)). If you have any doubts about the impariality of a judge in an case, please contact a criminal lawyer active in Switzerland.
Criminal authorities involved in criminal proceedings include law enforcement agencies as well as the courts.
The prosecution authorities are mentioned in Art. 12 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and include the police, the public prosecutor and the authorities responsible for prosecuting contraventions. The police are responsible for investigating the facts of a case. They are responsible for the preservation of evidence, the questioning of injured persons and the interrogation, arrest, detention or search for suspects. The police take action on the basis of a report, instructions from the public prosecutor or on the basis of their own findings. The public prosecutor’s office is responsible for enforcing the state’s right to punish. The public prosecutor brings the charges, represents them in court and is the authority that issues penalty orders. The attorneys for criminal law in Zurich, St. Gallen and Frauenfeld will be happy to provide further information on the authorities involved.
The courts are listed in Art. 13 CrimPC. The compulsory measures court (ordering pre-trial/security detention and other coercive measures), the court of first instance, the court of appeal, the objections authority and the federal court represent the criminal authorities.