Compulsory measures under the code of criminal procedure

Compulsory measures are regulated in the 5th Title of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in Art. 196 ff. Coercive measures are procedural acts carried out by the criminal authorities. They serve to secure evidence, ensure the attendace of persons in the proceedings or to guarantee the execution of a specific final decision. They are ordered by the public prosecutor, the courts or the police. A criminal lawyer in Frauenfeld, St. Gallen or Zurich can give you further information about the responsibilities of the various measures.

Compulsory measures can interfere with the fundamental rights of the persons concerned. Accordingly, certain general requirements (pursuant to Art. 197 Criminal Procedure Code) must be met for the criminal authorities to be allowed to take appropriate measures. There must be sufficient suspicion of the crime, the compulsory measures must be provided for by law, there must be no milder measures that would lead to the same goal, and the significance of the crime must justify the respective measure. If the person concerned wishes to defend themselves against the compulsory measures which have been invoked, they can file a complaint.

The second chapter on compulsory measures in the Code of Criminal Procedure regulates summonses, the duty to appear and the tracing of wanted persons or property (Art. 201 ff. Criminal Procedure Code). A summons is a request to participate in a procedural act, which is obligatory. If a summons has been issued, the person concerned is picked up by police officers at their residence and brought before the relevant criminal authority. This is only permissible under certain circumstances, for example if a preceding summons has not been obeyed. Our attorneys for criminal law in St. Gallen, Zurich or Frauenfeld can inform you about the other circumstances in which a summons is permissible. The tracing of wanted persons or property (pursuant to Section 3 of the CrimPC) is a search of person or property connected with criminal proceedings. It is used in particular to determine the whereabouts of a person in order to arrest them.

Subsequently, Art. 212 et seq. CrimPC regulate the deprivation of liberty, remand and preventive detention. These include police detention and pursuit as well as provisional arrest. In urgent cases, police pursuit may extend to pursuing accused persons to the territory of another municipality, another canton or even abroad. Furthermore, there is a clear distinction between remand detention and preventive detention. Remand or pre-trial detention occurs until the court receives the indictment. From the point of the indictment, preventive detention exists until the judgment becomes final or a custodial sanction is executed.

Searches (house search, search of records, search of persons and objects) and examinations (examinations of persons, examinations of corpses) are further measures provided for by law in Art. 241 et seq. CrimPC. The search of persons and the examination of persons must be distinguished. A search relates to clothing, the surface of the body and easily accessible body orifices. An examination, on the other hand, concerns the inside of the body (e.g. the stomach contents) and the genital area.

Other compulsory measures are DNA analysis (Art. 255 ff. CrimPC) as well as identification services and writing and speech samples (Art. 260 ff. CrimPC). Our attorneys specializing in criminal law in Zurich, Frauenfeld or St. Gallen can provide you with further information on these measures. In the case of a seizure according to Art. 263 ff. of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a person is deprived of objects or assets or the right to dispose of them is restricted. The consent of the person concerned is not required.

Finally, the Code of Criminal Procedure also mentions the use of special technical devices for surveillance (Art. 269 ff.). These include various special technical devices. Namely, this type of surveillance relates to postal and telecommunication traffic, banking relations, surveillance with technical monitoring devices, observation and undercover investigation as well as undercover searches. The covert surveillance measures serve the purpose of solving serious crimes. A criminal lawyer at Teichmann International in Switzerland can tell you the specific catalog offenses.