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Swiss Criminal Code

The Federal Assembly the Swiss Confederation,

based on Article 123 paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Federal Constitution1,2
and having considered a Federal Council Dispatch dated 23 July 19183,

decrees:

1SR 101

2 Amended by No I of the FA of 30 Sept. 2011 in force since 1 July 2012 (AS 20122575; BBl 2010 56515677).

3BBl 1918 IV 1

Book One: General Provisions4

4 Amended by No I of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979).

Part One: Felonies and Misdemeanours

Title One: Scope of Application

Art. 1  

1. No pen­alty without a law

 

A pen­alty or meas­ure may only be im­posed for an act that has been ex­pressly de­clared to be an of­fence by law.

Art. 2  

2. Com­mence­ment of ap­plic­ab­il­ity of the Code

 

1 This Code ap­plies to any per­son who com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our fol­low­ing the date on which it comes in­to force.

2 Any per­son who com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our pri­or to this Code com­ing in­to force is only sub­ject to its terms in the event that the pen­alty here­un­der is less than the pen­alty that would oth­er­wise ap­ply.

Art. 3  

3. Ter­rit­ori­al scope of ap­plic­a­tion

Felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours in Switzer­land

 

1 Any per­son who com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our in Switzer­land is sub­ject to this Code.

2 If the per­son con­cerned has served a sen­tence in full or in part for the of­fence in an­oth­er coun­try, the Swiss court must take the sen­tence served in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the sen­tence to be im­posed.

3 If the per­son con­cerned has been pro­sec­uted in a for­eign coun­try at the re­quest of the Swiss au­thor­it­ies, then un­less the of­fence in­volves a gross vi­ol­a­tion of the prin­ciples of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or the Con­ven­tion from 4 Novem­ber 19505 for the pro­tec­tion of Hu­man Rights and Fun­da­ment­al Freedoms (ECHR), he is not pro­sec­uted in Switzer­land for the same of­fence if:

a.
the for­eign court has ac­quit­ted him and the judg­ment has taken full leg­al ef­fect;
b.
the pen­alty to which he had been sen­tenced in the for­eign coun­try has been served, re­mit­ted or be­come time-barred.

4 If the per­son pro­sec­uted abroad at the re­quest of the Swiss au­thor­it­ies has not served the sen­tence or has only served it in part, the whole sen­tence or the re­mainder shall be served in Switzer­land. The court de­cides wheth­er a meas­ure that has not been ex­ecuted abroad or has only been served in part must be ex­ecuted or con­tin­ued in Switzer­land.

Art. 4  

Felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours against the state com­mit­ted abroad

 

1 This Code also ap­plies to any per­son who com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our against the state or its na­tion­al se­cur­ity (Art. 265–278).

2 If the per­son con­cerned has been con­victed of the of­fence and has served the sen­tence in full or in part in an­oth­er coun­try, the court shall take the sen­tence served in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the sen­tence to be im­posed.

Art. 5  

Of­fences against minors abroad

 

1 This Code also ap­plies to any per­son who is in Switzer­land, is not be­ing ex­tra­dited and has com­mit­ted any of the fol­low­ing of­fences abroad:

a.7
traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings (Art. 182), in­de­cent as­sault (Art. 189 paras 2 and 3), rape (Art. 190 paras 2 and 3), ab­use of per­sons in­cap­able of prop­er judg­ment or res­ist­ance (Art. 191) or en­cour­aging pros­ti­tu­tion (Art. 195) if the vic­tim was less than 18 years of age;
abis.8
sexu­al acts with de­pend­ent per­sons (Art. 188) and sexu­al acts with minors against pay­ment (Art. 196);
b.
sexu­al acts with chil­dren (Art. 187) if the vic­tim was less than 14 years of age;
c.9
ag­grav­ated por­no­graphy (Art. 197 para. 3 and 4) if the items or re­cord­ings de­pict sexu­al acts with minors.

2 Un­less the of­fence in­volves a gross vi­ol­a­tion of the prin­ciples of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion and the ECHR10, the per­son con­cerned is not li­able to fur­ther pro­sec­u­tion in Switzer­land for the of­fence if:

a.
he has been ac­quit­ted of the of­fence abroad in a leg­ally bind­ing judg­ment;
b.
the sen­tence that was im­posed abroad has been served, re­mit­ted, or be­come time-barred.

3 If the per­son con­cerned has been con­victed of the of­fence abroad and if the sen­tence im­posed abroad has been partly served, the court shall take the part served in­to ac­count in the sen­tence to be im­posed. The court de­cides wheth­er a meas­ure ordered abroad but only partly ex­ecuted there must be con­tin­ued or taken in­to ac­count in the sen­tence im­posed in Switzer­land.

7 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

8 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FedD of 27 Sept. 2013 (Lan­zarote Con­ven­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2014 (AS 2014 1159; BBl 2012 7571).

9 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FedD of 27 Sept. 2013 (Lan­zarote Con­ven­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2014 (AS 2014 1159; BBl 2012 7571).

10 SR 0.101

Art. 6  

Of­fences com­mit­ted abroad pro­sec­uted in terms of an in­ter­na­tion­al ob­lig­a­tion

 

1 Any per­son who com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our abroad that Switzer­land is ob­liged to pro­sec­ute in terms of an in­ter­na­tion­al con­ven­tion is sub­ject to this Code provided:

a.
the act is also li­able to pro­sec­u­tion at the place of com­mis­sion or no crim­in­al law jur­is­dic­tion ap­plies at the place of com­mis­sion; and
b.
the per­son con­cerned re­mains in Switzer­land and is not ex­tra­dited to the for­eign coun­try.

2 The court de­term­ines the sen­tence so that over­all the per­son con­cerned is not treated more severely than would have been the case un­der the law at the place of com­mis­sion.

3 Un­less the of­fence in­volves a gross vi­ol­a­tion of the prin­ciples of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion and of the ECHR11, the per­son con­cerned is not li­able to fur­ther pro­sec­u­tion in Switzer­land if:

a.
he has been ac­quit­ted of the of­fence abroad in a leg­ally bind­ing judg­ment;
b.
the sen­tence that was im­posed abroad has been served, re­mit­ted, or be­come time-barred.

4 If the per­son con­cerned has been con­victed of the of­fence abroad and if the sen­tence im­posed abroad has been partly served, the court shall take the part served in­to ac­count in the sen­tence to be im­posed. The court de­cides wheth­er a meas­ure ordered abroad but only partly ex­ecuted there must be con­tin­ued or taken in­to ac­count in the sen­tence im­posed in Switzer­land.

Art. 7  

Oth­er of­fences com­mit­ted abroad

 

1 Any per­son who com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our abroad where the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 4, 5 or 6 are not ful­filled is sub­ject to this Code if:

a.
the of­fence is also li­able to pro­sec­u­tion at the place of com­mis­sion or the place of com­mis­sion is not sub­ject to crim­in­al law jur­is­dic­tion;
b.
the per­son con­cerned is in Switzer­land or is ex­tra­dited to Switzer­land due to the of­fence; and
c.
un­der Swiss law ex­tra­di­tion is per­mit­ted for the of­fence, but the per­son con­cerned is not be­ing ex­tra­dited.

2 If the per­son con­cerned is not Swiss and if the felony or mis­de­mean­our was not com­mit­ted against a Swiss per­son, para­graph 1 is ap­plic­able only if:

a.
the re­quest for ex­tra­di­tion was re­fused for a reas­on un­re­lated to the nature of the of­fence; or
b.
the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted a par­tic­u­larly ser­i­ous felony that is pro­scribed by the in­ter­na­tion­al com­munity.

3 The court shall de­term­ine the sen­tence so that over­all the per­son con­cerned is not treated more severely than would have been the case un­der the law at the place of com­mis­sion.

4 Un­less the of­fence in­volves a gross vi­ol­a­tion of the prin­ciples of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion and the ECHR12, the per­son con­cerned is not li­able to fur­ther pro­sec­u­tion in Switzer­land for the of­fence if:

a.
he has been ac­quit­ted of the of­fence abroad in a leg­ally bind­ing judg­ment;
b.
the sen­tence that was im­posed abroad has been served, re­mit­ted, or be­come time-barred.

5 If the per­son con­cerned has been con­victed of the of­fence abroad and if the sen­tence im­posed abroad has been partly served, the court shall take the part served in­to ac­count in the sen­tence to be im­posed. The court de­cides wheth­er a meas­ure ordered abroad but only partly ex­ecuted there must be con­tin­ued or taken in­to ac­count in the sen­tence im­posed in Switzer­land.

Art. 8  

Place of com­mis­sion

 

1 A felony or mis­de­mean­our is con­sidered to be com­mit­ted at the place where the per­son con­cerned com­mits it or un­law­fully omits to act, and at the place where the of­fence has taken ef­fect

2 An at­temp­ted of­fence is con­sidered to be com­mit­ted at the place where the per­son con­cerned at­temp­ted it and at the place where he in­ten­ded the of­fence to take ef­fect.

Art. 9  

4. Per­son­al scope of ap­plic­a­tion

 

1 This Code does not ap­ply to per­sons whose of­fences are sub­ject to mil­it­ary crim­in­al law.

2 For per­sons who have not at­tained the age of 18 at the time of the of­fence, the pro­vi­sions of the Ju­ven­ile Crim­in­al Law Act of 20 June 200313 (JCLA) are re­served. Where an of­fence com­mit­ted be­fore and after at­tain­ing the age of 18 must be judged, Art­icle 3 para­graph 2 JCLA ap­plies.14

13 SR 311.1

14 Amended by Art. 44 No 1 of the Ju­ven­ile Crim­in­al Law Act of 20 June 2003, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 20063545; BBl 1999 1979).

Title Two: Criminal Liability

Art. 10  

1. Felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours

Defin­i­tion

 

1 In this Code, felon­ies are dis­tin­guished from mis­de­mean­ours ac­cord­ing to the sever­ity of the pen­al­ties that the of­fence car­ries.

2 Felon­ies are of­fences that carry a cus­todi­al sen­tence of more than three years.

3 Mis­de­mean­ours are of­fences that carry a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 11  

Com­mis­sion by omis­sion

 

1 A felony or mis­de­mean­our may also be com­mit­ted by a fail­ure to com­ply with a duty to act.

2 A per­son fails to com­ply with a duty to act if he does not pre­vent a leg­al in­terest pro­tec­ted un­der crim­in­al law from be­ing ex­posed to danger or from be­ing harmed even though, due to his leg­al po­s­i­tion, he has a duty to do so, in par­tic­u­lar on the basis of:

a.
the law;
b.
a con­tract;
c.
a risk-bear­ing com­munity entered in­to vol­un­tar­ily; or
d.
the cre­ation of a risk.

3 Any per­son who fails to com­ply with a duty to act shall be li­able to pro­sec­u­tion only if, on the basis of the ele­ments of the of­fence con­cerned, his con­duct is, in the cir­cum­stances, as culp­able as it would have been had he act­ively com­mit­ted the of­fence.

4 The court may re­duce the sen­tence.

Art. 12  

2. In­ten­tion and neg­li­gence

Defin­i­tions

 

1 Un­less the law ex­pressly provides oth­er­wise, a per­son is only li­able to pro­sec­u­tion for a felony or mis­de­mean­our if he com­mits it wil­fully.

2 A per­son com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our wil­fully if he car­ries out the act in the know­ledge of what he is do­ing and in ac­cord­ance with his will. A per­son acts wil­fully as soon as he re­gards the real­isa­tion of the act as be­ing pos­sible and ac­cepts this.

3 A per­son com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our through neg­li­gence if he fails to con­sider or dis­reg­ards the con­sequences of his con­duct due to a culp­able lack of care. A lack of care is culp­able if the per­son fails to ex­er­cise the care that is in­cum­bent on him in the cir­cum­stances and com­men­sur­ate with his per­son­al cap­ab­il­it­ies.

Art. 13  

Er­ror of fact

 

1 If the per­son con­cerned acts un­der an er­ro­neous be­lief as to the cir­cum­stances, the court shall judge the act ac­cord­ing to the cir­cum­stances as the of­fend­er be­lieved them to be.

2 If the per­son con­cerned could have avoided the er­ror had he ex­er­cised due care, he shall be li­able to pro­sec­u­tion for his neg­li­gent act provided the neg­li­gent com­mis­sion of the act is an of­fence.

Art. 14  

3. Law­ful acts and guilt

Act per­mit­ted by law

 

Any per­son who acts as re­quired or per­mit­ted by the law, acts law­fully even if the act car­ries a pen­alty un­der this Code or an­oth­er Act.

Art. 15  

Le­git­im­ate self-de­fence

 

If any per­son is un­law­fully at­tacked or threatened with im­min­ent at­tack, the per­son at­tacked and any oth­er per­son are en­titled to ward off the at­tack by means that are reas­on­able in the cir­cum­stances.

Art. 16  

Mit­ig­at­ory self-de­fence

 

1 If a per­son in de­fend­ing him­self ex­ceeds the lim­its of self-de­fence as defined in Art­icle 15 and in do­ing so com­mits an of­fence, the court shall re­duce the sen­tence.

2 If a per­son in de­fend­ing him­self ex­ceeds the lim­its of self-de­fence as a res­ult of ex­cus­able ex­cite­ment or pan­ic in re­ac­tion to the at­tack, he does not com­mit an of­fence.

Art. 17  

Le­git­im­ate act in a situ­ation of ne­ces­sity

 

Any per­son who car­ries out an act that car­ries a crim­in­al pen­alty in or­der to save a leg­al in­terest of his own or of an­oth­er from im­me­di­ate and not oth­er­wise avert­able danger, acts law­fully if by do­ing so he safe­guards in­terests of high­er value.

Art. 18  

Mit­ig­at­ory act in a situ­ation of ne­ces­sity

 

1 Any per­son who car­ries out an act that car­ries a crim­in­al pen­alty in or­der to save him­self or an­oth­er from im­me­di­ate and not oth­er­wise avert­able danger to life or limb, free­dom, hon­our, prop­erty or oth­er in­terests of high value shall re­ceive a re­duced pen­alty if he could reas­on­ably have been ex­pec­ted to aban­don the en­dangered in­terest.

2 If the per­son con­cerned could not have been reas­on­ably ex­pec­ted to aban­don the en­dangered in­terest, he does not com­mit an of­fence.

Art. 19  

Ab­sence of leg­al re­spons­ib­il­ity due to a men­tal dis­order and di­min­ished re­spons­ib­il­ity

 

1 If the per­son con­cerned was un­able at the time of the act to ap­pre­ci­ate that his act was wrong or to act in ac­cord­ance with this ap­pre­ci­ation of the act, he is not li­able to a pen­alty.

2 If the per­son con­cerned was only par­tially able at the time of the act to ap­pre­ci­ate that his act was wrong or to act in ac­cord­ance with this ap­pre­ci­ation of the act, the court shall re­duce the sen­tence.

3 Meas­ures in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 59–61, 63, 64, 67, 67b and 67e may, however, be taken.15

4 If it was pos­sible for the per­son con­cerned to avoid his state of men­tal in­ca­pa­city or di­min­ished re­spons­ib­il­ity and had he done so to fore­see the act that may be com­mit­ted in that state, para­graphs 1–3 do not ap­ply.

15 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

Art. 20  

Doubt as to leg­al re­spons­ib­il­ity

 

If there are ser­i­ous grounds for be­liev­ing that the ac­cused may not be leg­ally re­spons­ible due to a men­tal dis­order, the in­vest­ig­at­ing au­thor­ity or the court shall or­der a spe­cial­ist re­port from an ex­pert.

Art. 21  

Er­ror as to un­law­ful­ness

 

Any per­son who is not and can­not be aware that, by car­ry­ing out an act, he is act­ing un­law­fully, does not com­mit an of­fence. If the er­ror was avoid­able, the court shall re­duce the sen­tence.

Art. 22  

4. At­tempts

Crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity for at­tempts

 

1 If, hav­ing em­barked on com­mit­ting a felony or mis­de­mean­our, the of­fend­er does not com­plete the crim­in­al act or if the res­ult re­quired to com­plete the act is not or can­not be achieved, the court may re­duce the pen­alty.

2 If the of­fend­er fails to re­cog­nise through a ser­i­ous lack of judge­ment that the act can­not un­der any cir­cum­stances be com­pleted due to the nature of the ob­ject­ive or the means used to achieve it, no pen­alty is im­posed.

Art. 23  

With­draw­al and act­ive re­pent­ance

 

1 If the per­son con­cerned of his own ac­cord does not com­plete the crim­in­al act or if he as­sists in pre­vent­ing the com­ple­tion of the act, the court may re­duce the sen­tence or waive any pen­alty.

2 If two or more per­sons carry out or par­ti­cip­ate in a crim­in­al act, the court may re­duce the sen­tence or waive any pen­alty in re­spect of any per­son con­cerned who, of his own ac­cord, as­sists in pre­vent­ing the com­ple­tion of the act.

3 The court may also re­duce the sen­tence or waive any pen­alty in re­spect of a per­son who with­draws from car­ry­ing out or par­ti­cip­at­ing in a crim­in­al act if the with­draw­al of the per­son con­cerned would have pre­ven­ted the com­ple­tion of the act had it not re­mained un­com­pleted for oth­er reas­ons.

4 If one or more of the per­sons car­ry­ing out or par­ti­cip­at­ing in a crim­in­al act makes a ser­i­ous ef­fort to pre­vent the com­ple­tion of the act, the court may re­duce the sen­tence or waive any pen­alty if an of­fence is com­mit­ted ir­re­spect­ive of the ef­forts of that per­son or per­sons.

Art. 24  

5. Par­ti­cip­a­tion

In­cite­ment

 

1 Any per­son who has wil­fully in­cited an­oth­er to com­mit a felony or a mis­de­mean­our, provided the of­fence is com­mit­ted, in­curs the same pen­alty as ap­plies to the per­son who has com­mit­ted the of­fence.

2 Any per­son who at­tempts to in­cite someone to com­mit a felony in­curs the pen­alty ap­plic­able to an at­tempt to com­mit that felony.

Art. 25  

Com­pli­city

 

Any per­son who wil­fully as­sists an­oth­er to com­mit a felony or a mis­de­mean­our shall be li­able to a re­duced pen­alty.

Art. 26  

Par­ti­cip­a­tion in a spe­cial of­fence

 

If crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity is es­tab­lished or in­creased by a spe­cial ob­lig­a­tion on the part of the of­fend­er, a par­ti­cipant shall be li­able to a re­duced pen­alty.

Art. 27  

Per­son­al cir­cum­stances

 

Spe­cial per­son­al con­di­tions, char­ac­ter­ist­ics and cir­cum­stances that in­crease, re­duce or ex­clude crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity are taken in­to ac­count in the case of­fend­ers or par­ti­cipants to which they ap­ply.

Art. 28  

6. Crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity of the me­dia

 

1 If an of­fence is com­mit­ted and com­pleted through pub­lic­a­tion in a me­di­um, then, sub­ject to the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions, only the au­thor shall be li­able to pro­sec­u­tion.

2 If the au­thor can­not be iden­ti­fied or if he can­not be brought to court in Switzer­land, then the ed­it­or re­spons­ible in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 322bis shall be li­able to pro­sec­u­tion. If there is no re­spons­ible ed­it­or, then the per­son re­spons­ible for pub­lic­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 322bis shall be li­able for pro­sec­u­tion.

3 If the pub­lic­a­tion has taken place without the know­ledge or against the will of the au­thor, then the ed­it­or or, in his ab­sence, the per­son re­spons­ible for pub­lic­a­tion shall be li­able to pro­sec­u­tion as the of­fend­er.

4 The ac­cur­ate re­port­ing of pub­lic talks and of­fi­cial com­mu­nic­a­tions from a pub­lic au­thor­ity may not be made sub­ject to pro­sec­u­tion.

Art. 28a  

Pro­tec­tion of sources

 

1 If per­sons who are pro­fes­sion­ally in­volved in the pub­lic­a­tion of in­form­a­tion in the ed­it­or­i­al sec­tion of a peri­od­ic­al me­di­um or their aux­il­i­ary per­son­nel re­fuse to give evid­ence as to the iden­tity of the au­thor or as to the con­tent and sources of their in­form­a­tion, they are not li­able to any pen­alty nor to any pro­ced­ur­al law en­force­ment meas­ures.

2 Para­graph 1 does not ap­ply if the court16 holds that:

a.
the evid­ence is re­quired in or­der to save a per­son from im­me­di­ate danger to life or limb; or
b.17
without the evid­ence, a case of hom­icide un­der Art­icles 111–113 or a dif­fer­ent felony that car­ries a min­im­um cus­todi­al sen­tence of three years, or an of­fence un­der Art­icles 187, 189–191, 197 para­graph 4, 260ter,260quin­quies, 260sex­ies,305bis, 305ter or 322ter–322sep­tiesof this Code or un­der Art­icle 19 para­graph 2 of the Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 195118 will not be solved or the per­sons sus­pec­ted of com­mit­ting the said of­fence may not be ap­pre­hen­ded.

16 Term in ac­cord­ance with No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827). This change has been made in the pro­vi­sions spe­cified in the AS.

17 Amended by An­nex No II 2 of the FedD of 25 Sept. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion on the Pre­ven­tion of Ter­ror­ism and its Ad­di­tion­al Pro­tocol and the Strength­en­ing of Crim­in­al Justice In­stru­ments for com­bat­ing Ter­ror­ism and Or­gan­ised Crime, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2021 (AS 2021 360; BBl 2018 6427).

18 SR 812.121

Art. 29  

7. Agency re­la­tion­ships

 

A spe­cial ob­lig­a­tion, the vi­ol­a­tion of which es­tab­lishes or in­creases crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity, and which is in­cum­bent only on the leg­al en­tity, the com­pany or the sole pro­pri­et­or­ship19, is at­trib­uted to a nat­ur­al per­son, if that per­son acts:

a.
as a gov­ern­ing of­ficer or as a mem­ber of a gov­ern­ing of­ficer of a leg­al en­tity;
b.
as a part­ner;
c.
as an em­ploy­ee with in­de­pend­ent de­cision-mak­ing au­thor­ity in his field of activ­ity with­in a leg­al en­tity, a com­pany or a sole pro­pri­et­or­ship20; or
d.
without be­ing a gov­ern­ing of­ficer, mem­ber of a gov­ern­ing of­ficer, part­ner or em­ploy­ee, as the de facto man­ager.

19 Foot­note rel­ev­ant to Ger­man text only.

20 Foot­note rel­ev­ant to Ger­man text only.

Art. 30  

8. Crim­in­al com­plaint

Right to file a com­plaint

 

1 If an act shall be li­able to pro­sec­u­tion only if a com­plaint is filed, any per­son who suf­fers harm due to the act may re­quest that the per­son re­spons­ible be pro­sec­uted.

2 If the per­son suf­fer­ing harm does not have the leg­al ca­pa­city to act, his leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive is en­titled to file a com­plaint. If he is un­der guard­i­an­ship or sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship, the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity is also en­titled to file a com­plaint.21

3 If the per­son suf­fer­ing harm is a minor or if he is sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship, he is en­titled to file a com­plaint if he is cap­able of judge­ment.22

4 If the per­son suf­fer­ing harm dies without fil­ing the crim­in­al com­plaint or without ex­pressly waiv­ing his right to file the crim­in­al com­plaint, his next of kin are en­titled to file the com­plaint.

5 If an en­titled per­son ex­pressly waives his right to file a com­plaint, his waiver is fi­nal.

21 Second sen­tence amended by An­nex No 14 of the FA of 19 Dec. 2008 (Adult Pro­tec­tion, Law of Per­sons and Law of Chil­dren), in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2011 725; BBl 20067001).

22 Amended by An­nex No 14 of the FA of 19 Dec. 2008 (Adult Pro­tec­tion, Law of Per­sons and Law of Chil­dren), in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2011 725; BBl 20067001).

Art. 31  

Time lim­it for fil­ing a com­plaint

 

The right to file a com­plaint ex­pires after three months. The peri­od be­gins on the day that the per­son en­titled to file a com­plaint dis­cov­ers the iden­tity of sus­pect.

Art. 32  

In­di­vis­ib­il­ity

 

If an en­titled per­son files a com­plaint against one per­son who par­ti­cip­ated in the act, all the par­ti­cipants be­come li­able to pro­sec­u­tion.

Art. 33  

With­draw­al of a com­plaint

 

1 The per­son en­titled to file a com­plaint may with­draw the com­plaint at any time be­fore no­tice is giv­en of the judg­ment of the second can­ton­al in­stance.

2 Any per­son who has with­drawn his com­plaint may not file it again.

3 If the en­titled per­son with­draws his com­plaint against one sus­pect, the with­draw­al ap­plies to all sus­pects.

4 If a sus­pect ob­jects to the with­draw­al of the com­plaint against him, the with­draw­al does not ap­ply to him.

Title Three: Sentences and Measures

Chapter One: Sentences

Section One: Monetary Penalties and Custodial Sentences 23

23 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amendments to the Law of Criminal Sanctions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 34  

1. Mon­et­ary pen­alty

As­sess­ment

 

1 Un­less the law provides oth­er­wise, a mon­et­ary pen­alty amounts to a min­im­um of three and a max­im­um of 180 daily pen­alty units.24 The court de­cides on the num­ber ac­cord­ing to the culp­ab­il­ity of the of­fend­er.

2 A daily pen­alty unit nor­mally amounts to a min­im­um of 30 francs and a max­im­um of 3000 francs.25 The court may re­duce the value of the daily pen­alty unit to 10 francs if the of­fend­er’s per­son­al or fin­an­cial cir­cum­stances so re­quire.26 It may de­cide on a value in ex­cess of the max­im­um value of the daily pen­alty unit if the law so per­mits. It de­cides on the value of the daily pen­alty unit ac­cord­ing to the per­son­al and fin­an­cial cir­cum­stances of the of­fend­er at the time of con­vic­tion, and in par­tic­u­lar ac­cord­ing to his in­come and cap­it­al, liv­ing ex­penses, any main­ten­ance or sup­port ob­lig­a­tions and the min­im­um sub­sist­ence level.27

3 The au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the can­tons and the com­munes shall provide the in­form­a­tion re­quired to de­term­ine the daily pen­alty unit.

4 The num­ber and value of the daily pen­alty units must be stated in the judg­ment.

24 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

25 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

26 Second and third sen­tences amended by An­nex No 5 of the FA of 19 June 2020 (Com­pany Law), in force since 1 Jan. 2023 (AS 2020 4005; 2022 109; BBl 2017 399).

27 Forth sen­tence in­ser­ted by by An­nex No 5 of the FA of 19 June 2020 (Com­pany Law), in force since 1 Jan. 2023 (AS 2020 4005; 2022 109; BBl 2017 399).

Art. 35  

Ex­e­cu­tion

 

1 The ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity shall spe­cify that the of­fend­er make pay­ment with­in a peri­od of between one and six months.28 It may stip­u­late pay­ment by in­stal­ments and on re­quest may ex­tend the peri­od al­lowed.


2 If there is jus­ti­fied sus­pi­cion that the of­fend­er will fail to pay the mon­et­ary pen­alty, the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may re­quest im­me­di­ate pay­ment or the pro­vi­sion of se­cur­ity.

3 If the of­fend­er fails to pay the mon­et­ary pen­alty with­in the spe­cified peri­od, the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity shall in­struct the debt col­lec­tion pro­ceed­ings provided their suc­cess is ex­pec­ted.

28 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 36  

Al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence

 

1 In the event that the of­fend­er fails to pay the mon­et­ary pen­alty and it is not re­cov­er­able through debt col­lec­tion pro­ced­ures (Art. 35 para. 3), the of­fend­er shall serve a cus­todi­al sen­tence as the al­tern­at­ive to the mon­et­ary pen­alty. A daily pen­alty unit cor­res­ponds to one day in cus­tody. The ret­ro­spect­ive pay­ment of the mon­et­ary pen­alty leads to a cor­res­pond­ing re­duc­tion in the al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence.

2 If the mon­et­ary pen­alty has been im­posed by an ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity, the court de­cides on the al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence.

3–5 ...29

29 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 37–3930  

2. ...

 

30 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 4031  

3. Cus­todi­al sen­tence

Term

 

1 The min­im­um term of a cus­todi­al sen­tence is three days; a short­er cus­todi­al sen­tence in lieu of an un­paid mon­et­ary pen­alty (Art. 36) or fine (Art. 106) is re­served.

2 The max­im­um term of a cus­todi­al sen­tence is 20 years. Where the law ex­pressly provides, the cus­todi­al sen­tence is for life

31 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 4132  

Cus­todi­al sen­tence in­stead of a mon­et­ary pen­alty

 

1 The court may im­pose a cus­todi­al sen­tence in­stead of a mon­et­ary pen­alty if:

a.
a cus­todi­al sen­tence ap­pears ap­pro­pri­ate in or­der to pre­vent the of­fend­er from com­mit­ting fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours; or
b.
it is an­ti­cip­ated that it will not be pos­sible to en­force a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 The court must ex­plain why it has de­cided to im­pose a cus­todi­al sen­tence.

3 The right is re­served to im­pose a cus­todi­al sen­tence in­stead of an un­paid mon­et­ary pen­alty (Art. 36).

32 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Section Two: Suspended and Partially Suspended Sentences

Art. 42  

1. Sus­pen­ded sen­tences

 

1 The court shall nor­mally sus­pend the ex­e­cu­tion of a mon­et­ary pen­alty or a cus­todi­al sen­tence of no more than two years un­less an un­sus­pen­ded sen­tence ap­pears to be ne­ces­sary in or­der to pre­vent the of­fend­er from com­mit­ting fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours.33

2 If the of­fend­er re­ceived a sus­pen­ded or un­sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence of more than six months with­in the five years pri­or to the of­fence, the sen­tence may only be sus­pen­ded where the cir­cum­stances are es­pe­cially fa­vour­able.34

3 The sus­pen­sion of the ex­e­cu­tion of a sen­tence may also be re­fused if the of­fend­er has failed to make a reas­on­able ef­fort to com­pensate for any loss or dam­age he may have caused.

4 A sus­pen­ded sen­tence may be com­bined with a fine in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 106.35

33 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

34 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

35 Amended by No I of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 43  

2. Par­tially sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tences

 

1 The court may par­tially sus­pend the ex­e­cu­tion of a cus­todi­al sen­tence of at least one year and no more than three years if this is ne­ces­sary in or­der to take suf­fi­cient ac­count of the culp­ab­il­ity of the of­fend­er.37

2 The part of the sen­tence that must be ex­ecuted im­me­di­ately may not ex­ceed one half of the sen­tence.

3 Both the sus­pen­ded and the un­sus­pen­ded part must amount to at least six months.38 The pro­vi­sions on the grant­ing of pa­role (Art. 86) do not ap­ply to the un­sus­pen­ded part of the sen­tence.

37 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

38 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 44  

3. Gen­er­al pro­vi­sions

Pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od

 

1 If the court sus­pends the ex­e­cu­tion of a sen­tence in full or in part, it shall make the of­fend­er sub­ject to a pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od of from two to five years.

2 The court may or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and im­pose con­duct or­ders for the dur­a­tion of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od.

3 The court shall ex­plain the im­port­ance and the con­sequences of the sus­pen­ded and par­tially sus­pen­ded sen­tence to the of­fend­er.

4 The pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od be­gins on no­ti­fic­a­tion of the judg­ment that is en­force­able.39

39 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 3 of the Crim­in­al Re­cords Re­gister Act of 17 June 2016, in force since 23 Jan. 2023 (AS 2022 600; BBl 2014 5713).

Art. 45  

Suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of pro­ba­tion

 

If the of­fend­er is of good con­duct un­til the ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, the post­poned sen­tence is not ex­ecuted.

Art. 46  

Breach of pro­ba­tion

 

1 If the of­fend­er com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our dur­ing the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od and if it there­fore must be ex­pec­ted that he will com­mit fur­ther of­fences, the court shall re­voke the sus­pen­ded sen­tence or the sus­pen­ded part of the sen­tence. If the re­voked sen­tence and the new sen­tence are of the same type, they shall form a cu­mu­lat­ive sen­tence in ana­log­ous ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 49.40

2 If it is not ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er will com­mit fur­ther of­fences, the court shall not re­voke the sus­pen­ded sen­tence. It may ad­mon­ish the of­fend­er or ex­tend the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od by up to one half of the dur­a­tion spe­cified in the judg­ment. The court may or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and im­pose con­duct or­ders for the dur­a­tion of the ex­ten­ded pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od. If the ex­ten­sion be­gins after the ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, the ex­ten­ded peri­od be­gins on the day that it is ordered.

3 The court that judges the new felony or mis­de­mean­our also de­cides on re­voc­a­tion.

4 If the of­fend­er fails to at­tend for pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or dis­reg­ards the con­duct or­ders, Art­icle 95 para­graphs 3–5 ap­ply.

5 Re­voc­a­tion may no longer be ordered if three years have elapsed since the ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od.

40 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Section Three: Determination of the Sentence

Art. 47  

1. Prin­ciple

 

1 The court de­term­ines the sen­tence ac­cord­ing to the culp­ab­il­ity of the of­fend­er. It takes ac­count of the pre­vi­ous con­duct and the per­son­al cir­cum­stances of the of­fend­er as well as the ef­fect that the sen­tence will have on his life.

2 Culp­ab­il­ity is as­sessed ac­cord­ing to the ser­i­ous­ness of the dam­age or danger to the leg­al in­terest con­cerned, the rep­re­hens­ib­il­ity of the con­duct, the of­fend­er's motives and aims, and the ex­tent to which the of­fend­er, in view of the per­son­al and ex­tern­al cir­cum­stances, could have avoided caus­ing the danger or dam­age.

Art. 48  

2. Mit­ig­a­tion of the sen­tence

Grounds

 

The court shall re­duce the sen­tence if:

a.
the of­fend­er ac­ted:
1.
for hon­our­able motives,
2.
while in ser­i­ous dis­tress,
3.
while of the view that he was un­der ser­i­ous threat,
4.
at the be­hest of a per­son whom he was duty bound to obey or on whom he was de­pend­ent;
b.
the of­fend­er was ser­i­ously pro­voked by the con­duct of the per­son suf­fer­ing in­jury;
c.
the of­fend­er ac­ted in a state of ex­treme emo­tion that was ex­cus­able in the cir­cum­stances or while un­der ser­i­ous psy­cho­lo­gic­al stress;
d.
the of­fend­er has shown genu­ine re­morse, and in par­tic­u­lar has made re­par­a­tion for the in­jury, dam­age or loss caused, in­so­far as this may reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted of him;
e.
the need for pun­ish­ment has been sub­stan­tially re­duced due to the time that has elapsed since the of­fence and the of­fend­er has been of good con­duct in this peri­od.


Art. 48a  

Ef­fect

 

1 If the court chooses to re­duce the sen­tence, it is not bound by the min­im­um pen­alty that the of­fence car­ries.

2 The court may im­pose a dif­fer­ent form of pen­alty from that which the of­fence car­ries, but re­mains bound by the stat­utory max­im­um and min­im­um levels for that form of pen­alty.

Art. 49  

3. Con­cur­rent sen­ten­cing

 

1 If the of­fend­er, by com­mit­ting one or more of­fences, has ful­filled the re­quire­ments for two or more pen­al­ties of the same form, the court shall im­pose the sen­tence for the most ser­i­ous of­fence at an ap­pro­pri­ately in­creased level. It may not, however, in­crease the max­im­um level of the sen­tence by more than half, and it is bound by the stat­utory max­im­um for that form of pen­alty.

2 If the court must pass sen­tence on an of­fence that the of­fend­er com­mit­ted be­fore he was sen­tenced for a dif­fer­ent of­fence, it shall de­term­ine the sup­ple­ment­ary pen­alty so that the of­fend­er is not more severely pun­ished than he would have been had the sen­tences been im­posed at the same time.

3 If the of­fend­er com­mit­ted one or more of­fences be­fore reach­ing the age of 18, the court shall de­term­ine the cu­mu­lat­ive sen­tence in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2 such that it is not more severe than it would have been had sen­tences been im­posed sep­ar­ately.

Art. 50  

4. Ob­lig­a­tion to jus­ti­fy

 

Where a judg­ment must be jus­ti­fied, the court shall also spe­cify the cir­cum­stances taken in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the sen­tence and their weight­ing.


Art. 51  

5. Tak­ing ac­count of time spend on re­mand

 

When de­term­in­ing the sen­tence, the court shall take ac­count of any time spent on re­mand that the of­fend­er has served in re­spect of the pro­ceed­ings in ques­tion or any oth­er pro­ceed­ings. One day in de­ten­tion cor­res­ponds to one daily pen­alty unit of a mon­et­ary pen­alty.41

41 Second sen­tence amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Section Four: Exemption from Punishment and the Suspension and Abandonment of Proceedings 42

42 Amended by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Improved Protection for Victims of Violence, in force since 1 July 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

Art. 52  

1. Grounds for ex­emp­tion from pun­ish­ment

No need for a pen­alty

 

The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall re­frain from pro­sec­ut­ing the of­fend­er, bring­ing him to court or pun­ish­ing him if the level of culp­ab­il­ity and con­sequences of the of­fence are neg­li­gible.

Art. 5344  

Re­par­a­tion

 

If the of­fend­er has made re­par­a­tion for the loss, dam­age or in­jury or made every reas­on­able ef­fort to right the wrong that he has caused, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall re­frain from pro­sec­ut­ing him, bring­ing him to court or pun­ish­ing him if:

a.
a sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year, a sus­pen­ded mon­et­ary pen­alty or a fine are suit­able as a pen­alty;
b.
the in­terest in pro­sec­u­tion of the gen­er­al pub­lic and of the per­sons harmed are neg­li­gible; and
c.
the of­fend­er has ad­mit­ted the of­fence.

44 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on the Amend­ment of Re­par­a­tion Ar­range­ments, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2019 (AS 2019 1809; BBl 2018 37574925).

Art. 54  

Ef­fect on the of­fend­er of his act

 

If the of­fend­er is so ser­i­ously af­fected by the im­me­di­ate con­sequences of his act that a pen­alty would be in­ap­pro­pri­ate, the re­spons­ible au­thor­it­ies shall re­frain from pro­sec­ut­ing him, bring­ing him to court or pun­ish­ing him.


Art. 55  

2. Gen­er­al pro­vi­sions

 

1 The court shall re­frain from re­vok­ing a sus­pen­ded sen­tence and in the case of the pa­role from a re­call if the re­quire­ments for an ex­emp­tion from pun­ish­ment are met.

2 The can­tons des­ig­nate the bod­ies re­spons­ible for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of crim­in­al justice as the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies un­der Art­icles 52, 53 and 54.

Art. 55a46  

3. Sus­pen­sion and aban­don­ment of pro­ceed­ings.

Spouse, re­gistered part­ner or life part­ner as vic­tim

 

1In a case of com­mon as­sault (Art. 123 no 2 para. 3–5), re­peated acts of ag­gres­sion (Art. 126 para. 2 let. b, bbis and c), threat­en­ing be­ha­viour (Art. 180 para. 2) and co­er­cion (Art. 181), the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court may sus­pend the pro­ceed­ings if:47

a.48
the vic­tim:
1.
is the spouse of the of­fend­er and the of­fence was com­mit­ted dur­ing the mar­riage or with­in a year of di­vorce, or
2.
is the re­gistered part­ner of the of­fend­er and the of­fence was com­mit­ted dur­ing the re­gistered part­ner­ship or with­in a year of its dis­sol­u­tion, or
3.
is the hetero- or ho­mo­sexu­al part­ner of the of­fend­er or the ex-part­ner of the of­fend­er if they have been sep­ar­ated for less than a year; and
b.49
the vic­tim or, if he or she lacks leg­al ca­pa­city, his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive re­quests this to be done; and
c.50
sus­pen­sion ap­pears ap­pro­pri­ate in or­der to sta­bil­ise or im­prove the vic­tim’s situ­ation.

2 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court may dur­ing the peri­od of sus­pen­sion re­quire the ac­cused to at­tend a course on vi­ol­ence pre­ven­tion. The pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court shall no­ti­fy the au­thor­ity or or­gan­isa­tion com­pet­ent un­der can­ton­al law for mat­ters re­lat­ing to do­mest­ic vi­ol­ence about the meas­ures taken.51

3 Sus­pen­sion is not per­mit­ted if:

a.
the ac­cused has been con­victed of a felony or mis­de­mean­our against life and limb, against liberty, or against sexu­al in­teg­rity;
b.
he or she has re­ceived a sen­tence or been made sub­ject to a meas­ure; and
c.
the vic­tim of the of­fence is a per­son lis­ted in para­graph 1 let­ter a.52

4 Sus­pen­sion is lim­ited to six months. The pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court shall re­sume the pro­ceed­ings if the vic­tim or, if he or she lacks leg­al ca­pa­city, his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive re­quests this to be done or it tran­spires that the sus­pen­sion has neither sta­bil­ised nor im­proved the vic­tim’s situ­ation.53

5 Be­fore the sus­pen­sion ends, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court shall con­duct an as­sess­ment. If the vic­tim’s situ­ation has sta­bil­ised or im­proved, it shall or­der the aban­don­ment of the pro­ceed­ings.54

46 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 3 Oct. 2003 (Pro­sec­u­tion of Of­fences with­in Mar­riage or Re­gistered Part­ner­ships), in force since 1 April 2004 (AS 2004 14031407; BBl 2003 19091937).

47 Amended by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Im­proved Pro­tec­tion for Vic­tims of Vi­ol­ence, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

48 Amended by Art. 37 No 1 of the Same-Sex Part­ner­ship Act of 18 June 2004, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 20055685; BBl 2003 1288).

49 Amended by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Im­proved Pro­tec­tion for Vic­tims of Vi­ol­ence, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

50 In­ser­ted by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Im­proved Pro­tec­tion for Vic­tims of Vi­ol­ence, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

51 Amended by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Im­proved Pro­tec­tion for Vic­tims of Vi­ol­ence, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

52 Amended by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Im­proved Pro­tec­tion for Vic­tims of Vi­ol­ence, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

53 Amended by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Im­proved Pro­tec­tion for Vic­tims of Vi­ol­ence, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

54 In­ser­ted by No I 3 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 on Im­proved Pro­tec­tion for Vic­tims of Vi­ol­ence, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2020 (AS 2019 2273; BBl 2017 7307).

Chapter Two: Measures

Section One: Therapeutic Measures and Indefinite Incarceration

Art. 56  

1. Prin­ciples

 

1 A meas­ure is ordered if:

a.
a pen­alty alone is not suf­fi­cient to counter the risk of fur­ther of­fend­ing by the of­fend­er;
b.
the of­fend­er re­quires treat­ment or treat­ment is re­quired in the in­terest of pub­lic safety; and
c.
the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 59–61, 63 or 64 are ful­filled.

2 The or­der­ing of a meas­ure re­quires that the re­lated in­ter­ven­tion in the per­son­al rights of the of­fend­er is not un­reas­on­able in view of the prob­ab­il­ity and ser­i­ous­ness of ad­di­tion­al of­fences.

3 In or­der­ing a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61, 63 and 64 and in modi­fy­ing the sanc­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 65, the court shall base its de­cision on an ex­pert as­sess­ment. This shall provide an opin­ion on:

a.
the ne­ces­sity and the pro­spects of suc­cess of any treat­ment of the of­fend­er;
b.
the nature and the prob­ab­il­ity of pos­sible ad­di­tion­al of­fences; and
c.
the ways in which the meas­ure may be im­ple­men­ted.

4 If the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted an of­fence in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, the as­sess­ment must be con­duc­ted by an ex­pert who has neither treated the of­fend­er be­fore nor been re­spons­ible in any oth­er way for his care.

4bis If con­sid­er­a­tion is giv­en to or­der­ing lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64 para­graph 1bis, the court shall base its de­cision on re­ports from at least two ex­per­i­enced spe­cial­ists who are in­de­pend­ent of each oth­er and who have neither treated the of­fend­er nor been re­spons­ible in any oth­er way for his care.55

5 Nor­mally the court only or­ders a meas­ure if a suit­able in­sti­tu­tion is avail­able.

6 Where the re­quire­ments for a meas­ure are no longer ful­filled, it is re­voked.

55 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 21 Dec. 2007 (In­def­in­ite In­car­cer­a­tion of Ex­tremely Dan­ger­ous Of­fend­ers), in force since 1 Aug. 2008 (AS 2008 29612964; BBl 2006 889).

Art. 56a  

Con­cur­rent meas­ures

 

1 If two or more meas­ures are equally suit­able but only one is ne­ces­sary, the court shall or­der the meas­ure that is more con­veni­ent for the of­fend­er.

2 If two or more meas­ures are ne­ces­sary, the court may or­der these con­cur­rently.

Art. 57  

Re­la­tion­ship between meas­ures and pen­al­ties

 

1 If the re­quire­ments for both a pen­alty and a meas­ure are ful­filled, the court shall or­der both sanc­tions.

2 The im­ple­ment­a­tion of a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61 takes pre­ced­ence over a cus­todi­al sen­tence that is im­posed at the same time or which is ex­ecuted through re­voc­a­tion of a sus­pen­ded sen­tence or re­call to cus­tody. Like­wise, the re­act­iv­a­tion of the ex­e­cu­tion of a meas­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 62a takes pre­ced­ence over a cu­mu­lat­ive sen­tence im­posed at the same time.

3 The depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with the meas­ure must be taken in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the pen­alty.

Art. 58  

Im­ple­ment­a­tion

 

1 ...56

2 The thera­peut­ic in­sti­tu­tions in terms of Art­icles 59–61 must be man­aged sep­ar­ately from pen­al in­sti­tu­tions.

56 Re­pealed by An­nex 1 No II 8 of the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code of 5 Oct. 2007, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 1881; BBl 2006 1085).

Art. 59  

2. In-pa­tient thera­peut­ic meas­ures

Treat­ment of men­tal dis­orders

 

1 If the of­fend­er is suf­fer­ing from a ser­i­ous men­tal dis­order, the court may or­der in-pa­tient treat­ment if:

a.
the of­fend­er's men­tal dis­order was a factor in a felony or mis­de­mean­our that he com­mit­ted; and
b.
it is ex­pec­ted that the meas­ure will re­duce the risk of fur­ther of­fences be­ing com­mit­ted in which his men­tal dis­order is a factor.

2 The in-pa­tient treat­ment is car­ried out in an ap­pro­pri­ate psy­chi­at­ric in­sti­tu­tion or thera­peut­ic in­sti­tu­tion.

3 If there is a risk of the of­fend­er ab­scond­ing or com­mit­ting fur­ther of­fences, he shall be treated in a se­cure in­sti­tu­tion. He may also be treated in a pen­al in­sti­tu­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 76 para­graph 2, provided it is guar­an­teed that the re­quired thera­peut­ic treat­ment can be provided by spe­cial­ist staff.57

4 The depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with in-pa­tient treat­ment nor­mally amounts to a max­im­um of five years. If the re­quire­ments for pa­role have not yet been ful­filled after five years and if it is ex­pec­ted that the meas­ure will re­duce the risk of fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours be­ing com­mit­ted in which his men­tal dis­order is a factor, the court may at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity or­der the ex­ten­sion of the meas­ure for a max­im­um of five years in any case.

57 Amended by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

Art. 60  

Treat­ment of ad­dic­tion

 

1 If the of­fend­er is de­pend­ent on ad­dict­ive sub­stances or in any oth­er way de­pend­ent, the court may or­der in-pa­tient treat­ment if:

a.
the of­fend­er's de­pend­ence was a factor in the felony or mis­de­mean­our that he com­mit­ted; and
b.
it is ex­pec­ted that treat­ment will re­duce the risk of fur­ther of­fences be­ing com­mit­ted in which his de­pend­ence is a factor.

2 The court shall take ac­count of the of­fend­er's re­quest for and read­i­ness to un­der­go treat­ment.

3 The treat­ment is car­ried out in a spe­cial­ised in­sti­tu­tion or, if ne­ces­sary, in a psy­chi­at­ric hos­pit­al. It must be ad­jus­ted to the spe­cial needs of the of­fend­er and the state of his health.

4 The depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with in-pa­tient treat­ment shall nor­mally amount to a max­im­um of three years. If the re­quire­ments for pa­role have not yet been ful­filled after three years and if it is ex­pec­ted that the meas­ure will re­duce the risk of fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours be­ing com­mit­ted in which his de­pend­ence is a factor, the court may at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity on one oc­ca­sion only or­der the ex­ten­sion of the meas­ure for a max­im­um of one fur­ther year. In the event of an ex­ten­sion and the re­call to cus­tody fol­low­ing pa­role, the depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with the meas­ure may not ex­ceed a max­im­um of six years.

Art. 61  

Meas­ures for young adults

 

1 If the of­fend­er was un­der 25 years of age at the time of the of­fence and if he is suf­fer­ing from a ser­i­ous de­vel­op­ment­al dis­order, the court may com­mit him to an in­sti­tu­tion for young adults if:

a.
the of­fend­er's de­vel­op­ment­al dis­order was a factor in the felony or mis­de­mean­our that he com­mit­ted; and
b.
it is ex­pec­ted that the meas­ure will re­duce the risk of fur­ther of­fences be­ing com­mit­ted in which his de­vel­op­ment­al dis­order is a factor.

2 In­sti­tu­tions for young adults must be man­aged sep­ar­ately from oth­er in­sti­tu­tions and fa­cil­it­ies un­der this Code.

3 The of­fend­er should be taught the skills needed to live in­de­pend­ently and without fur­ther of­fend­ing. In par­tic­u­lar, he should be en­cour­aged to un­der­go ba­sic and ad­vanced vo­ca­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al train­ing.

4 The depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with the meas­ure amounts to a max­im­um of four years. In the event of the re­call to cus­tody fol­low­ing re­lease on pa­role, it may not ex­ceed a max­im­um of six years. The meas­ure must be re­voked when the of­fend­er reaches the age of 30.

5 If the of­fend­er was con­victed of an of­fence com­mit­ted be­fore he was 18 years of age, the meas­ure may be im­ple­men­ted in an in­sti­tu­tion for minors.


Art. 62  

Pa­role

 

1 The of­fend­er is re­leased on pa­role from un­der­go­ing an in-pa­tient meas­ure as soon as his con­di­tion jus­ti­fies his be­ing giv­en the liberty to prove him­self.

2 In the case of re­lease on pa­role from a meas­ure un­der Art­icle 59, the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od amounts to one to five years, and in the case of re­lease on pa­role from a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 60 and 61, from one to three years.

3 The per­son re­leased on pa­role may be re­quired to un­der­go out-pa­tient treat­ment dur­ing the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od. The ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and is­sue con­duct or­ders for the dur­a­tion the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od.

4 If on ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, a con­tinu­ation of the out-pa­tient treat­ment, the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or the con­duct or­ders is con­sidered ne­ces­sary in or­der to re­duce the risk of fur­ther felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours be­ing com­mit­ted that are as­so­ci­ated with the con­di­tion of the per­son re­leased on pa­role, the court may at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity ex­tend the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od as fol­lows:

a.
by one to five years in the case of re­lease on pa­role from a meas­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 59;
b.
by one to three years in the case of re­lease on pa­role from a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 60 and 61.

5 The pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od fol­low­ing re­lease on pa­role from a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 60 and 61 may not ex­ceed six years.

6 If the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted an of­fence in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od may be ex­ten­ded as of­ten as is con­sidered ne­ces­sary to pre­vent fur­ther such of­fences be­ing com­mit­ted.

Art. 62a  

Breach of pro­ba­tion

 

1 If a per­son re­leased on pa­role com­mits an of­fence dur­ing the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od and thus demon­strates that the risk that the meas­ure was in­ten­ded to re­duce is still present, the court as­sess­ing the new of­fence may, after con­sult­ing the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity:

a.
or­der his re­call to cus­tody;
b.
re­voke the meas­ure and, provided the rel­ev­ant re­quire­ments are ful­filled, or­der a new meas­ure; or
c.
re­voke the meas­ure and, provided the rel­ev­ant re­quire­ments are ful­filled, or­der the ex­e­cu­tion of a cus­todi­al sen­tence.

2 If as a res­ult of the new of­fence the re­quire­ments for an un­sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence are ful­filled and if this sen­tence runs con­cur­rently with a cus­todi­al sen­tence that has been sus­pen­ded to give pre­ced­ence to the meas­ure, the court shall im­pose a cu­mu­lat­ive sen­tence in ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 49.

3 If as a res­ult of the con­duct of the per­son re­leased on pa­role dur­ing the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od there is a ser­i­ous ex­pect­a­tion that he could com­mit an of­fence in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, the court that ordered the meas­ure may, at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity, or­der a re­call to cus­tody.

4 For a meas­ure un­der Art­icle 59, the re­call to cus­tody is for a max­im­um peri­od of five years, and for meas­ures un­der Art­icles 60 and 61 for a max­im­um peri­od of two years.

5 If the court de­cides against a re­call to cus­tody or a new meas­ure, it may:

a.
ad­mon­ish the per­son re­leased on pa­role;
b.
or­der out-pa­tient treat­ment or pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance;
c.
im­pose con­duct or­ders on the per­son re­leased on pa­role; and
d.
ex­tend the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od by from one to five years in the case of a meas­ure un­der Art­icle 59, and by from one to three years in the case of a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 60 and 61.

6 If the per­son re­leased on pa­role fails to com­ply with the terms of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or dis­reg­ards the con­duct or­ders, Art­icle 95 para­graphs 3–5 ap­plies.

Art. 62b  

Fi­nal re­lease

 

1 If the per­son re­leased on pa­role suc­cess­fully com­pletes the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, he is gran­ted fi­nal re­lease.

2 The of­fend­er is gran­ted fi­nal re­lease if the max­im­um dur­a­tion of a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 60 and 61 is reached and the re­quire­ments for the pa­role ap­ply.

3 If depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with the meas­ure is for a short­er peri­od than the sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence, the re­mainder of the sen­tence is not ex­ecuted.

Art. 62c  

Ter­min­a­tion of a meas­ure

 

1 A meas­ure is ter­min­ated, if:

a.
its im­ple­ment­a­tion or con­tinu­ation ap­pears to have no pro­spect of suc­cess;
b.
the max­im­um dur­a­tion un­der Art­icles 60 and 61 has been reached and the re­quire­ments for the pa­role do not ap­ply; or
c.
a suit­able in­sti­tu­tion does not ex­ist or no longer ex­ists.

2 If the depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with the meas­ure is for a short­er peri­od than the sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence, the re­mainder of the sen­tence is ex­ecuted. If the re­quire­ments for pa­role or a sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence ap­ply in re­la­tion to the re­mainder of the sen­tence, ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence is sus­pen­ded.

3 In­stead of or­der­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence, the court may or­der an­oth­er meas­ure if it is to be ex­pec­ted that such a meas­ure will re­duce the risk of the of­fend­er com­mit­ting fur­ther felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours in which his con­di­tion is a factor.

4 If there is a ser­i­ous ex­pect­a­tion that if a meas­ure ordered in re­spect of an of­fence in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1 is ter­min­ated, the of­fend­er will com­mit fur­ther such of­fences, the court may at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity or­der his in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion.

5 If the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity re­gards an adult pro­tec­tion meas­ure to be ap­pro­pri­ate on the ter­min­a­tion of the meas­ure, it shall in­form the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity of this.58

6 Fur­ther­more, the court may ter­min­ate an in-pa­tient thera­peut­ic meas­ure be­fore or dur­ing its im­ple­ment­a­tion and or­der an­oth­er in-pa­tient thera­peut­ic meas­ure in its place if it is ex­pec­ted that the new meas­ure has a sig­ni­fic­antly bet­ter chance of re­du­cing the risk of the of­fend­er com­mit­ting fur­ther felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours in which his con­di­tion is a factor.

58 Amended by An­nex No 14 of the FA of 19 Dec. 2008 (Adult Pro­tec­tion, Law of Per­sons and Law of Chil­dren), in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2011 725; BBl 20067001).

Art. 62d  

Con­sid­er­a­tion of re­lease and the ter­min­a­tion of meas­ures

 

1 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall on re­quest or ex of­fi­cio con­sider wheth­er and when the of­fend­er should be re­leased on pa­role from the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the meas­ure or wheth­er the meas­ure should be ter­min­ated. It makes a de­cision on such mat­ters at least once each year. It shall first grant a hear­ing to the of­fend­er and ob­tain a re­port from the gov­ern­ing body of the rel­ev­ant in­sti­tu­tion.

2 If the of­fend­er com­mit­ted an of­fence in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall reach its de­cision on the basis of the ex­pert opin­ion of an in­de­pend­ent spe­cial­ist and after hear­ing a com­mit­tee com­pris­ing rep­res­ent­at­ives of the pro­sec­u­tion ser­vices, the ex­e­cu­tion au­thor­it­ies and one or more psy­chi­at­rists. The spe­cial­ists and psy­chi­at­rists con­cerned must not be those re­spons­ible for the treat­ment or care of the of­fend­er.

Art. 63  

3. Out-pa­tient treat­ment

Re­quire­ments and im­ple­ment­a­tion

 

1 If the of­fend­er is suf­fer­ing from a ser­i­ous men­tal dis­order or if he is de­pend­ent on ad­dict­ive sub­stances or in any oth­er way, the court may or­der that he re­ceive out-pa­tient rather than in-pa­tient treat­ment if:

a.
the of­fend­er com­mits an of­fence in which his con­di­tion is a factor; and
b.
it is ex­pec­ted that the meas­ure will re­duce the risk of fur­ther of­fences be­ing com­mit­ted in which his con­di­tion is a factor.

2 The court may de­fer the ex­e­cu­tion of an un­sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence im­posed at the same time, a sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence due for ex­e­cu­tion fol­low­ing re­voc­a­tion of sus­pen­sion and the re­mainder of a sen­tence due for ex­e­cu­tion fol­low­ing a re­call to cus­tody to give pre­ced­ence to out-pa­tient treat­ment in or­der to take ac­count of the form of the treat­ment. It may or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and is­sue con­duct or­ders for the dur­a­tion the treat­ment.

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der the of­fend­er to be treated tem­por­ar­ily as an in-pa­tient if this is re­quired in or­der to ini­ti­ate the out-pa­tient treat­ment. The peri­od of in-pa­tient treat­ment may not ex­ceed two months.

4 The peri­od of out-pa­tient treat­ment may not nor­mally ex­ceed five years. If the con­tinu­ation of the out-pa­tient treat­ment is con­sidered ne­ces­sary at the end of the five-year peri­od in or­der to re­duce the risk of fur­ther felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours in which a men­tal dis­order is a factor, the court may at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity con­tin­ue the treat­ment for a fur­ther peri­od of from one to five years.

Art. 63a  

Ter­min­a­tion of the meas­ure

 

1 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall as­sess at least once each year wheth­er the out-pa­tient treat­ment should be con­tin­ued or ter­min­ated. It shall first grant a hear­ing to the of­fend­er and ob­tain a re­port from the ther­ap­ists.

2 The out-pa­tient treat­ment is ter­min­ated by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity if:

a.
it has been suc­cess­fully com­pleted;
b.
its con­tinu­ation ap­pears to have no pro­spect of suc­cess; or
c.
the stat­utory max­im­um dur­a­tion for the treat­ment of an al­co­hol, drug or thera­peut­ic product de­pend­ent per­son has been reached.

3 If the of­fend­er com­mits a fur­ther of­fence dur­ing the out-pa­tient treat­ment and thus demon­strates that this form of treat­ment will prob­ably be un­suc­cess­ful in avert­ing the risk of­fences be­ing com­mit­ted in which the con­di­tion of the of­fend­er is a factor, the un­suc­cess­ful treat­ment shall be ter­min­ated by or­der of the court as­sess­ing the new of­fence.

4 If the of­fend­er fails to com­ply with the con­di­tions of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or if he dis­reg­ards the con­duct or­ders, Art­icle 95 para­graphs 3–5 ap­plies.

Art. 63b  

Ex­e­cu­tion of the sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence

 

1 If the out-pa­tient treat­ment has been suc­cess­fully com­pleted, the sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence is not ex­ecuted.

2 If out-pa­tient treat­ment is ter­min­ated due to there be­ing no pro­spect of suc­cess (Art. 63a para. 2 let. b), the stat­utory max­im­um dur­a­tion be­ing reached (Art. 63a para. 2 let. c) or its be­ing un­suc­cess­ful (Art. 63a para. 3), the sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence is ex­ecuted.

3 If out-pa­tient treat­ment con­duc­ted while the of­fend­er is at liberty is con­sidered a risk to third parties, the sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence is ex­ecuted and the out-pa­tient treat­ment con­tin­ued while the cus­todi­al sen­tence is be­ing served.

4 The court de­cides on the ex­tent to which the depriva­tion of liberty as­so­ci­ated with the out-pa­tient treat­ment is taken in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the cus­todi­al sen­tence. If the re­quire­ments for pa­role or a sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence ap­ply in re­la­tion to the re­mainder of the sen­tence, ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence is sus­pen­ded.

5 In­stead of the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence the court may or­der an in-pa­tient thera­peut­ic meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61 if it is to be ex­pec­ted that this will re­duce the risk of the of­fend­er com­mit­ting fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours in which his con­di­tion is a factor.

Art. 64  

4. In­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion

Re­quire­ments and ex­e­cu­tion

 

1 The court shall or­der in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion if the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted murder, in­ten­tion­al hom­icide, ser­i­ous as­sault, rape, rob­bery, host­age tak­ing, ar­son, en­dan­ger­ing life or an­oth­er of­fence that car­ries a max­im­um sen­tence of five or more years by which he has caused or in­ten­ded to cause ser­i­ous det­ri­ment to the phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity of an­oth­er per­son, and if:59

a.
due to the per­son­al­ity traits of the of­fend­er, the cir­cum­stances of the of­fence and his gen­er­al per­son­al cir­cum­stances, it is ser­i­ously ex­pec­ted that he will com­mit fur­ther of­fences of the same type; or
b.
due to a per­man­ent or long-term men­tal dis­order of con­sid­er­able grav­ity that was a factor in the of­fence, it is ser­i­ously ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er will com­mit fur­ther of­fences of the same type and the or­der­ing of a meas­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 59 does not prom­ise any suc­cess.

1bis The court shall or­der lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion if the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted murder, in­ten­tion­al hom­icide, ser­i­ous as­sault, rob­bery, rape, in­de­cent as­sault, false im­pris­on­ment or ab­duc­tion, host­age-tak­ing, en­forced dis­ap­pear­ance of per­sons, traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings, gen­o­cide, or a felony un­der the head­ing of crimes against hu­man­ity or war crimes (Title Twelve) and if the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments are met:60

a. the of­fend­er, by com­mit­ting the of­fence, caused or in­ten­ded to cause ser­i­ous det­ri­ment to the phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity of an­oth­er per­son.

b.
There is a high prob­ab­il­ity that the of­fend­er will com­mit one of these felon­ies again.
c.
The of­fend­er is as­sessed as be­ing per­man­ently un­treat­able, as the treat­ment of­fers no long-term pro­spect of suc­cess.61

2 The ex­e­cu­tion of the cus­todi­al sen­tence takes pri­or­ity over in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion. The pro­vi­sions on pa­role in re­la­tion to the cus­todi­al sen­tence (Art. 86–88) do not ap­ply.62

3 If dur­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of the cus­todi­al sen­tence, it is ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er will prove to be of good be­ha­viour when at liberty, the court shall or­der pa­role from the cus­todi­al sen­tence at the earli­est from the time when the of­fend­er has served two thirds of a spe­cif­ic cus­todi­al sen­tence or 15 years of a life sen­tence. The court that ordered in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion is re­spons­ible for the de­cision on pa­role. In ad­di­tion, Art­icle 64a ap­plies.63

4 In­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion is ex­ecuted in a thera­peut­ic in­sti­tu­tion or in a pen­al in­sti­tu­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 76 para­graph 2. Pub­lic safety must be guar­an­teed. The of­fend­er re­ceives psy­chi­at­ric care if this is ne­ces­sary.

59 Amended by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

60 Amended by An­nex 2 No 1 of the FedD of 18 Dec. 2015 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the In­ter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion for the Pro­tec­tion of All Per­sons from En­forced Dis­ap­pear­ance, in force since 1 Jan. 2017 (AS 2016 4687; BBl 2014 453).

61 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 21 Dec. 2007 (In­def­in­ite In­car­cer­a­tion of Ex­tremely Dan­ger­ous Of­fend­ers), in force since 1 Aug. 2008 (AS 2008 29612964; BBl 2006 889).

62 Amended by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

63 Amended by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

Art. 64a  

Re­voc­a­tion and re­lease

 

1 The of­fend­er is re­leased on pa­role from in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64 para­graph 1 as soon as it is ex­pec­ted that he will be of good be­ha­viour when at liberty.64 The pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od amounts to two to five years. For the dur­a­tion of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance may be ordered and con­duct or­ders may be im­posed.

2 If on ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od a con­tinu­ation of the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or the con­duct or­ders is con­sidered to be ne­ces­sary in or­der to re­duce the risk of fur­ther of­fences in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, the court may at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity ex­tend the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od by a fur­ther two to five years.

3 If due to his con­duct dur­ing the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, it is ser­i­ously ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er may com­mit fur­ther of­fences in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, the court at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity shall or­der his re­call to cus­tody.

4 If the of­fend­er when re­leased on pa­role fails to com­ply with the con­di­tions of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or dis­reg­ards the con­duct or­ders, Art­icle 95 para­graphs 3–5 ap­plies.

5 If the of­fend­er when re­leased on pa­role is of good be­ha­viour un­til the ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, he is gran­ted fi­nal re­lease.

64 Amended by No I of the FA of 21 Dec. 2007 (In­def­in­ite In­car­cer­a­tion of Ex­tremely Dan­ger­ous Of­fend­ers), in force since 1 Aug. 2008 (AS 2008 29612964; BBl 2006 889).

Art. 64b65  

Con­sid­er­a­tion of re­lease

 

1 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall con­sider on re­quest or ex of­fi­cio:

a.
at least once an­nu­ally, and for the first time after two years have lapsed, wheth­er and when the of­fend­er may be re­leased on pa­role from in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion (Art. 64a para. 1);
b.
at least every two years, and for the first time be­fore in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion takes ef­fect, wheth­er the re­quire­ments for an in-pa­tient thera­peut­ic treat­ment have been ful­filled and wheth­er a re­lated ap­plic­a­tion should there­fore be made to the com­pet­ent court (Art. 65 para. 1).

2 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity makes its de­cisions in terms of para­graph 1 based on:

a.
a re­port from the in­sti­tu­tion board;
b.
an in­de­pend­ent spe­cial­ist as­sess­ment in terms of Art­icle 56 para­graph 4;
c.
its hear­ing of a com­mit­tee in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 62d para­graph 2;
d.
its hear­ing of the of­fend­er.


65 Amended by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

Art. 64c66  

Con­sid­er­a­tion of re­lease from lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion and pa­role

 

1 In cases of lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion un­der Art­icle 64 para­graph 1bis the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall con­sider ex of­fi­cio or on ap­plic­a­tion wheth­er there are any new sci­entif­ic find­ings that lead to the ex­pect­a­tion that the of­fend­er can be treated so that he will no longer pose a risk to the pub­lic. It de­cides on the basis of a re­port from the Fed­er­al Com­mis­sion for the As­sess­ment of the Treat­ab­il­ity of Of­fend­ers sub­ject to Lifelong In­car­cer­a­tion.

2 If the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity con­cludes that the of­fend­er can be treated, it shall of­fer him the op­tion of treat­ment. Treat­ment is car­ried out in a se­cure in­sti­tu­tion. Un­til the or­der im­pos­ing lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion has been re­voked in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3, the pro­vi­sions on the ex­e­cu­tion of lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion con­tin­ue to ap­ply.

3 If the treat­ment demon­strates that the risk posed by the of­fend­er has been con­sid­er­ably re­duced and may be re­duced to the ex­tent that he no longer poses a risk to the pub­lic, the court shall re­voke the or­der im­pos­ing lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion and or­der an in-pa­tient thera­peut­ic meas­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 59–61 in a se­cure in­sti­tu­tion.

4 The court may grant the of­fend­er pa­role from lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion if he no longer poses a risk to the pub­lic due to old age, ser­i­ous ill­ness or on oth­er grounds. Pa­role is gov­erned by Art­icle 64a.

5 The court that ordered lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion is re­spons­ible for de­cid­ing wheth­er pa­role should be gran­ted. It bases its de­cision on re­ports from at least two ex­per­i­enced spe­cial­ists who are in­de­pend­ent of each oth­er and who have neither treated the of­fend­er nor been re­spons­ible in any oth­er way for his care.

6 Para­graphs 1 and 2 also ap­ply dur­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of the cus­todi­al sen­tence that pre­cedes lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion. Lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion shall be re­voked in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3 at the earli­est when the of­fend­er has served two thirds of a spe­cif­ic cus­todi­al sen­tence or 15 years of a life sen­tence.

66 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 21 Dec. 2007 (In­def­in­ite In­car­cer­a­tion of Ex­tremely Dan­ger­ous Of­fend­ers), in force since 1 Aug. 2008 (AS 2008 29612964; BBl 2006 889).

Art. 65  

5. Modi­fic­a­tion of the sanc­tion

 

1 If an of­fend­er ful­fils the re­quire­ments for an in-pa­tient thera­peut­ic meas­ure in terms of Art­icles 59–61 be­fore or dur­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of a cus­todi­al sen­tence or of in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, the court may or­der this meas­ure ret­ro­spect­ively.67 The com­pet­ent court is the court that im­posed the sen­tence or ordered in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion. The ex­e­cu­tion of any re­mainder of the sen­tence is de­ferred.

2 If dur­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of the cus­todi­al sen­tence, new in­form­a­tion or evid­ence comes to light to the ef­fect that the re­quire­ments for in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion are ful­filled and already ap­plied at the time of con­vic­tion al­though the court could not have had know­ledge of this, the court may or­der in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion ret­ro­spect­ively. Jur­is­dic­tion and pro­ced­ure are de­term­ined by the rules that ap­ply to a re­view (Arts 410−415 Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code68).69 70

67 Amended by No I of the FA of 21 Dec. 2007 (In­def­in­ite In­car­cer­a­tion of Ex­tremely Dan­ger­ous Of­fend­ers), in force since 1 Aug. 2008 (AS 2008 29612964; BBl 2006 889).

68 SR 312.0

69 Second sen­tence amended by An­nex 1 No 4 of the FA of 17 June 2022, in force since 1 Jan. 2024 (AS 2023 468; BBl 2019 6697).

70 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

Section Two: Other Measures

Art. 66  

1. Good be­ha­viour bond

 

1 If there is the risk that a per­son will com­mit a felony or mis­de­mean­our that he has threatened to com­mit, or if a per­son con­victed of a felony or of a mis­de­mean­our in­dic­ates the clear in­ten­tion to re­peat the of­fence, the court may, at the re­quest of the per­son threatened, ob­tain a prom­ise from the of­fend­er that he will not com­mit the of­fence and re­quire him to de­pos­it ap­pro­pri­ate se­cur­ity there­for.

2 If he re­fuses to make the prom­ise, or fails to de­pos­it the se­cur­ity with­in the spe­cified peri­od, the court may re­quire him to make the prom­ise or de­pos­it the se­cur­ity by im­pos­ing a peri­od of de­ten­tion for se­cur­ity reas­ons. The peri­od of de­ten­tion for se­cur­ity reas­ons may not be for more than two months. It is ex­ecuted in the same way as a short cus­todi­al sen­tence (Art. 7971).

3 If the of­fend­er com­mits the felony or the mis­de­mean­our with­in two years of de­pos­it­ing the se­cur­ity, the se­cur­ity is for­feited to the State. If no of­fence is com­mit­ted, the se­cur­ity is re­turned.

71 This Art. has been re­pealed (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 66a72  

1a. Ex­pul­sion.

a. Man­dat­ory ex­pul­sion

 

1 The court shall ex­pel for­eign na­tion­als from Switzer­land for a peri­od of 5–15 years if they are con­victed of any of the fol­low­ing of­fences, ir­re­spect­ive of the sen­tence im­posed:

a.
in­ten­tion­al hom­icide (Art. 111), murder (Art. 112), man­slaughter (Art. 113), in­cit­ing and as­sist­ing sui­cide (Art. 115), il­leg­al abor­tion (Art. 118 para. 1 and 2);
b.73 ser­i­ous as­sault (Art. 122), fe­male gen­it­al mu­til­a­tion (Art. 124 para. 1), aban­don­ment (Art. 127), en­dan­ger­ing life (Art. 129), at­tack (Art. 134), rep­res­ent­a­tions of vi­ol­ence (Art. 135 para. 1 second sen­tence);
c.74
ag­grav­ated mis­ap­pro­pri­ation (Art. 138 no 2), ag­grav­ated theft (Art. 139 no 3), rob­bery (Art. 140), fraud for com­mer­cial gain (Art. 146 para. 2), com­puter fraud for com­mer­cial gain (Art. 147 para. 2), mis­use of a cheque card or cred­it card for com­mer­cial gain (Art. 148 para. 2), ag­grav­ated ex­tor­tion (Art. 156 para. 2–4), prof­it­eer­ing for com­mer­cial gain (Art. 157 no 2), hand­ling stolen goods for com­mer­cial gain (Art. 160 no 2);
d.
theft (Art. 139) in con­junc­tion with un­law­ful entry (Art. 186);
e.
fraud (Art. 146 para. 1) re­lated to so­cial in­sur­ance or so­cial as­sist­ance, un­law­ful claims for so­cial in­sur­ance or so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits (Art. 148a para. 1);
f.75
fraud (Art. 146 para. 1), fraud in re­la­tion to ad­min­is­trat­ive ser­vices and charges (Art. 14 para. 1–3 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 197476 on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law) or tax fraud, mis­ap­pro­pri­ation of taxes de­duc­ted at source or any oth­er of­fence re­lated to pub­lic charges that car­ries a max­im­um pen­alty of a one-year cus­todi­al sen­tence or more;
g.
forced mar­riage, forced re­gistered part­ner­ship (Art. 181a), traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings (Art. 182), false im­pris­on­ment and ab­duc­tion (Art. 183), ag­grav­ated false im­pris­on­ment and ab­duc­tion (Art. 184), host­age tak­ing (Art. 185);
h.77
sexu­al acts with chil­dren (Art. 187 nos 1 and 1bis), sexu­al acts with de­pend­ent per­sons (Art. 188), in­de­cent as­sault (Art. 189 paras 2 and 3), rape (Art. 190), sexu­al acts with per­sons in­cap­able of prop­er judge­ment or res­ist­ance (Art. 191), ex­ploit­a­tion of a per­son in a po­s­i­tion of need or of de­pend­ency (Art. 193), de­cep­tion as to the sexu­al char­ac­ter of an act (Art. 193a), en­cour­aging pros­ti­tu­tion (Art. 195), por­no­graphy (Art. 197 para. 4 second sen­tence);
i.78
ar­son (Art. 221 para. 1 and 2), wil­fully caus­ing an ex­plo­sion (Art. 223 para. 1 no 1), mis­use of ex­plos­ives and tox­ic gases with crim­in­al in­tent (Art. 224 para. 1), wil­fully caus­ing danger without crim­in­al in­tent (Art. 225 para. 1), man­u­fac­ture, con­ceal­ment and trans­port of ex­plos­ives and tox­ic gases (Art. 226), caus­ing danger by means of nuc­le­ar en­ergy, ra­dio­activ­ity and ion­ising ra­di­ation (Art. 226bis), pre­par­at­ory of­fences (Art. 226ter), wil­fully caus­ing a flood or col­lapse (Art. 227 para. 1 no 1), crim­in­al dam­age to elec­tric­al in­stall­a­tions, and hy­draul­ic or pro­tect­ive struc­tures (Art. 228 no 1 para. 1), breach of con­struc­tion reg­u­la­tions (Art. 229 para. 1), re­mov­al or non-in­stall­a­tion of safety devices (Art. 230 Ziff. 1);
j.79
wil­fully caus­ing danger by means of ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied or patho­gen­ic or­gan­isms (Art. 230bis para. 1), trans­mis­sion of hu­man dis­eases (Art. 231), wil­ful con­tam­in­a­tion of drink­ing wa­ter (Art. 234 para. 1);
k.80
dis­rup­tion of pub­lic traffic (Art. 237 no 1);
l.81
acts pre­par­at­ory to the com­mis­sion of an of­fence (Art. 260bis para. 1 and 3), par­ti­cip­a­tion in or sup­port for a crim­in­al or ter­ror­ist or­gan­isa­tion (Art. 260ter), en­dan­ger­ing pub­lic safety with weapons (Art. 260quater), fin­an­cing ter­ror­ism (Art. 260quin­quies) or re­cruit­ing, train­ing and trav­el­ling with a view to com­mit­ting a ter­ror­ist of­fence (Art. 260sex­ies);
m..
gen­o­cide (Art. 264), felon­ies against hu­man­ity (Art. 264a), ser­i­ous vi­ol­a­tions of the Geneva Con­ven­tions of 12 Au­gust 194982 (Art. 264c), oth­er war crimes (Art. 264d–264h);
n.
wil­ful vi­ol­a­tions of Art­icle 116 para­graph 3 or Art­icle 118 para­graph 3 of the For­eign Na­tion­als Act of 16 Decem­ber 200583;
o.
vi­ol­a­tion of Art­icle 19 para­graph 2 or 20 para­graph 2 of the Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 195184 (NarcA);
p.85
vi­ol­a­tion of Art­icle 74 para­graph 4 of the In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice Act of 25 Septem­ber 201586 (In­telSA).

2 The court may by way of ex­cep­tion re­frain from or­der­ing ex­pul­sion if it would cause ser­i­ous per­son­al hard­ship to the for­eign na­tion­al con­cerned and the pub­lic in­terest in ex­pul­sion does not out­weigh the private in­terest of the for­eign na­tion­al in re­main­ing in Switzer­land. In such cases, ac­count must be taken of the spe­cial po­s­i­tion of for­eign na­tion­als who were born or have grown up in Switzer­land.

3 The court may also re­frain from or­der­ing ex­pul­sion if the of­fence was com­mit­ted in jus­ti­fi­able self-de­fence (Art. 16 para. 1) or in a jus­ti­fi­able situ­ation of ne­ces­sity (Art. 18 para. 1).

72 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3–6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain crim­in­al of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

73 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

74 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

75 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

76 SR 313.0

77 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

78 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

79 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

80 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

81 Amended by An­nex No II 2 of the FedD of 25 Sept. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion on the Pre­ven­tion of Ter­ror­ism and its Ad­di­tion­al Pro­tocol and the Strength­en­ing of Crim­in­al Justice In­stru­ments for com­bat­ing Ter­ror­ism and Or­gan­ised Crime, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2021 (AS 2021 360; BBl 2018 6427).

82 SR 0.518.12, 0.518.23, 0.518.42, 0.518.51

83 SR 142.20

84 SR 812.121

85 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 2 of the FedD of 25 Sept. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion on the Pre­ven­tion of Ter­ror­ism and its Ad­di­tion­al Pro­tocol and the Strength­en­ing of Crim­in­al Justice In­stru­ments for com­bat­ing Ter­ror­ism and Or­gan­ised Crime, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2021 (AS 2021 360; BBl 2018 6427).

86 SR 121

Art. 66abis87  

b. Non-man­dat­ory ex­pul­sion

 

The court may ex­pel a for­eign na­tion­al from Switzer­land for 3–15 years if he is con­victed and sen­tenced or made sub­ject to a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61 or 64 for a felony or mis­de­mean­our that is not lis­ted in Art­icle 66a.

87 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3–6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain crim­in­al of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Art. 66b88  

c. Com­mon pro­vi­sions. Re­peat of­fence

 

1 Any per­son who has been made sub­ject to an ex­pul­sion or­der who com­mits a fur­ther of­fence that meets the re­quire­ments for ex­pul­sion un­der Art­icle 66a shall be ex­pelled again for 20 years.

2 Lifelong ex­pul­sion may be ordered if the of­fend­er com­mits the new of­fence while the pre­vi­ous ex­pul­sion or­der is still in ef­fect.

88 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3–6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain crim­in­al of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Art. 66c89  

d. Time of en­force­ment

 

1 The ex­pul­sion or­der ap­plies from the date on which the judg­ment be­comes leg­ally en­force­able.

2 Be­fore en­for­cing the ex­pul­sion or­der, any un­sus­pen­ded sen­tences or parts there­of and any cus­todi­al meas­ures must be ex­ecuted.

3 The ex­pul­sion or­der is en­forced as soon as the of­fend­er is con­di­tion­ally or fi­nally re­leased from the ex­e­cu­tion of crim­in­al pen­al­ties or meas­ures or the cus­todi­al meas­ure is re­voked, provided that the re­mainder of sen­tence need not be ex­ecuted and no oth­er such meas­ure has been ordered.

4 If a per­son sub­ject to an ex­pul­sion or­der is trans­ferred to his home coun­try for the ex­e­cu­tion of crim­in­al pen­al­ties or meas­ures, the ex­pul­sion or­der ap­plies on such trans­fer.

5 The dur­a­tion of ex­pul­sion is cal­cu­lated from the day on which the of­fend­er leaves Switzer­land.

89 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3–6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain crim­in­al of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Art. 66d90  

e. De­fer­ring en­force­ment of man­dat­ory ex­pul­sion

 

1 The en­force­ment of a man­dat­ory ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a may only be de­ferred if:91

a.
the per­son con­cerned is re­cog­nised by Switzer­land as a refugee and, if ex­pelled, his life or his free­dom would be en­dangered due to his race, re­li­gion, na­tion­al­ity, af­fil­i­ation to a spe­cif­ic so­cial group or his polit­ic­al views; the fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to a refugee who may not in­voke the ban on re­foule­ment un­der Art­icle 5 para­graph 2 of the Asylum Act of 26 June 199892;
b.
ex­pul­sion would vi­ol­ate oth­er man­dat­ory pro­vi­sions of in­ter­na­tion­al law.

2 In reach­ing its de­cision, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity must as­sume that ex­pul­sion to a state deemed safe by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6a para­graph 2 of the Asylum Act of 26 June 1998 does not vi­ol­ate Art­icle 25 para­graphs 2 and 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion.

90 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3–6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain crim­in­al of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

91 The cor­rec­tion of 21 June 2017, pub­lished on 11 Ju­ly 2017 relates to the French text only (AS 2017 3695).

92 SR 142.31

Art. 6793  

2. Pro­hib­i­tion from car­ry­ing on an activ­ity, con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der

a. Pro­hib­i­tion from car­ry­ing on an activ­ity, re­quire­ments

 

1 If a per­son has com­mit­ted a felony or mis­de­mean­our while car­ry­ing on a pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity or an or­gan­ised non-pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity, and has as a res­ult re­ceived a cus­todi­al sen­tence in ex­cess of six months, and if there is a risk that he will ab­use his activ­ity in or­der to com­mit a fur­ther felony or mis­de­mean­our, the court may pro­hib­it him totally or par­tially from car­ry­ing on this activ­ity or com­par­able activ­it­ies for a peri­od of six months to five years.94

2 If a per­son has com­mit­ted a felony or mis­de­mean­our against a minor or an­oth­er es­pe­cially vul­ner­able per­son and if there is a risk that in car­ry­ing on a pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity or an or­gan­ised non-pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity that in­volves reg­u­lar con­tact with any minors or with oth­er es­pe­cially vul­ner­able per­sons he will com­mit fur­ther of­fences of this nature, the court may pro­hib­it him from car­ry­ing on the activ­ity con­cerned for one to ten years.

2bis The court may im­pose a lifelong pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der para­graph 2 if is an­ti­cip­ated that the of­fend­er will still rep­res­ent a danger after the peri­od of ten years.At the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity, it may ex­tend a pro­hib­i­tion or­der that is lim­ited in time in terms of para­graph 2 by a max­im­um of five years on any one oc­ca­sion if this is deemed ne­ces­sary to pre­vent the of­fend­er from com­mit­ting fur­ther felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours of the type that led to the pro­hib­i­tion or­der.95

3 If a per­son re­ceives a sen­tence or is made sub­ject to a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61, 63 or 64 for any of the fol­low­ing of­fences, the court shall pro­hib­it him for the rest of his life from car­ry­ing on any pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity or or­gan­ised non-pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity that in­volves reg­u­lar con­tact with any minors:

a.
traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings (Art. 182) where the of­fence was com­mit­ted for the pur­pose of the sexu­al ex­ploit­a­tion of a minor;
b.
sexu­al acts with chil­dren (Art. 187), sexu­al acts with de­pend­ent per­sons (Art. 188) or sexu­al acts with minors against pay­ment (Art. 196);
c.96
sexu­al ab­use and in­de­cent as­sault (Art. 189), rape (Art. 190), ab­use of a per­son in­cap­able of prop­er judge­ment or res­ist­ance (Art. 191), ex­ploit­a­tion of a per­son in a po­s­i­tion of need or de­pend­ency (Art. 193), de­cep­tion as to the sexu­al char­ac­ter of an act (Art. 193a), in­de­cent con­duct (Art. 194), en­cour­aging pros­ti­tu­tion (Art. 195), un­au­thor­ised passing on of private sexu­al con­tent (Art. 197a) or sexu­al har­ass­ment (Art. 198), where the of­fence is com­mit­ted against or in front of a minor;
d.
por­no­graphy (Art. 197):
1.
un­der Art­icle 197 para­graph 1 or 3,
2.
un­der Art­icle 197 para­graph 4 or 5, where the con­tent of the items or re­cord­ings in­volved sexu­al acts with minors.97

4 If a per­son re­ceives a sen­tence or is made sub­ject to a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61, 63 or 64 for any of the fol­low­ing of­fences, the court shall pro­hib­it him from car­ry­ing on any pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity or or­gan­ised non-pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity that in­volves reg­u­lar con­tact with es­pe­cially vul­ner­able adult per­sons, as well as any pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity or or­gan­ised non-pro­fes­sion­al activ­ity in the health sec­tor that in­volves dir­ect con­tact with pa­tients:

a.
traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings (Art. 182) where the of­fence was com­mit­ted for the pur­pose of the sexu­al ex­ploit­a­tion, sexu­al ab­use and in­de­cent as­sault (Art. 189), rape (Art. 190), sexu­al acts with per­sons in­cap­able of prop­er judge­ment or res­ist­ance (Art. 191), ex­ploit­a­tion of a per­son in a po­s­i­tion of need or de­pend­ency (Art. 193), de­cep­tion as to the sexu­al char­ac­ter of an act (Art. 193a), in­de­cent con­duct (Art. 194), en­cour­aging pros­ti­tu­tion (Art. 195), un­au­thor­ised passing on of private sexu­al con­tent (Art. 197a) or sexu­al har­ass­ment (Art. 198), where the of­fence is com­mit­ted against or in front of:98
1.
an es­pe­cially vul­ner­able adult vic­tim, or
2.
an adult vic­tim who is not es­pe­cially vul­ner­able, but who was in­cap­able of res­ist­ance or of judge­ment or who was un­able to de­fend him- or her­self as a res­ult of phys­ic­al or psy­cho­lo­gic­al de­pend­ence;
b.
por­no­graphy (Art. 197 para. 2 first sen­tence and para. 4 or 5), where the items or re­cord­ings had the fol­low­ing con­tent:
1.
sexu­al acts with es­pe­cially vul­ner­able adult vic­tims, or
2.
sexu­al acts with adult vic­tims who are not es­pe­cially vul­ner­able, but who were in­cap­able of res­ist­ance or of judge­ment or who were un­able to de­fend them­selves as a res­ult of phys­ic­al or psy­cho­lo­gic­al de­pend­ence.99

4bis By way of ex­cep­tion, the court may choose not to im­pose a pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der para­graph 3 or 4 in par­tic­u­larly minor cases if a pro­hib­i­tion or­der of this type does not ap­pear ne­ces­sary to pre­vent the of­fend­er from com­mit­ting fur­ther of­fences of the same type. A pro­hib­i­tion or­der is however man­dat­ory if the of­fend­er:

a.100
has been con­victed of traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings (Art. 182), in­de­cent as­sault (Art. 189 paras 2 and 3), rape (Art. 190 paras 2 and 3), sexu­al acts with per­sons in­cap­able of prop­er judge­ment or res­ist­ance (Art. 191) or en­cour­aging pros­ti­tu­tion (Art. 195); or
b.
is a pae­do­phile in ac­cord­ance with the in­ter­na­tion­ally re­cog­nised clas­si­fic­a­tion cri­ter­ia.101

5 If the of­fend­er re­ceives a sen­tence or is made sub­ject to a meas­ure for two or more of­fences in the same pro­ceed­ings, the court shall spe­cify what por­tion of the sen­tence or which meas­ure ap­plies to an of­fence that en­tails an activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­der. This por­tion of the sen­tence, the meas­ure and the of­fence are de­cis­ive in de­term­in­ing wheth­er an activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der para­graph 1, 2, 2bis, 3 or 4 is im­posed. The sen­tence por­tions for two or more rel­ev­ant of­fences are ad­ded to­geth­er. More than one activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­der may be im­posed.102

6 The court may or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance for the dur­a­tion of the pro­hib­i­tion or­ders.103

7 ...104

93 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

94 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

95 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

96 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

97 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

98 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

99 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

100 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

101 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

102 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

103 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

104 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

Art. 67a105  

Con­tent and scope

 

1 Pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 67 are activ­it­ies in ex­er­cise of a prin­cip­al or sec­ond­ary pro­fes­sion or trade or of a com­mer­cial en­ter­prise. Or­gan­ised non-pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies are activ­it­ies that are not or not primar­ily car­ried on for pe­cu­ni­ary gain and which are car­ried on in the con­text of an as­so­ci­ation or oth­er or­gan­isa­tion.

2 The pro­hib­i­tion from car­ry­ing on an activ­ity un­der Art­icle 67 in­cludes activ­it­ies that the of­fend­er car­ries on on a self-em­ployed basis, as a gov­ern­ing of­ficer of a leg­al en­tity or com­mer­cial en­ter­prise, or as the agent or rep­res­ent­at­ive of an­oth­er per­son or which he ar­ranges to be car­ried on by a per­son de­pend­ent on his in­struc­tions.

3 If there is a risk that the of­fend­er will also mis­use his activ­ity in or­der to com­mit of­fences if he is sub­ject to the or­ders and con­trol of a su­per­i­or or su­per­visor, he shall be totally pro­hib­ited from car­ry­ing on the activ­ity.

4 Pro­hib­i­tion or­ders un­der Art­icle 67 para­graphs 3 and 4 al­ways ap­ply to the en­tire activ­ity.

5 The fol­low­ing are deemed to be activ­it­ies with reg­u­lar con­tact with minors or with oth­er es­pe­cially vul­ner­able per­sons:

a.
activ­it­ies that dir­ectly and spe­cific­ally in­volve minors or oth­er es­pe­cially vul­ner­able per­sons, and in par­tic­u­lar:
1.
teach­ing or train­ing,
2.
par­ent­ing or coun­selling,
3.
care or su­per­vi­sion,
4.
nurs­ing,
5.
phys­ic­al ex­am­in­a­tion or treat­ment,
6.
psy­cho­lo­gic­al ex­am­in­a­tion or treat­ment,
7.
pre­par­ing and serving meals,
8.
trans­port,
9.
the dir­ect sale or loan of ob­jects in­ten­ded spe­cific­ally for minors or oth­er par­tic­u­larly vul­ner­able per­sons, and act­ing as a dir­ect in­ter­me­di­ary in such sales or loans, where this is the main activ­ity of the per­son con­cerned;
b.
oth­er activ­it­ies that are primar­ily or re­peatedly car­ried on in in­sti­tu­tions that of­fer the ser­vices lis­ted un­der let­ter a, with the ex­cep­tion of activ­it­ies where it is en­sured at the loc­a­tion or time con­cerned that no con­tact with minors or oth­er es­pe­cially vul­ner­able per­sons can take place.106

6 Es­pe­cially vul­ner­able per­sons are per­sons who be­cause of their age, an ill­ness or long-term phys­ic­al, men­tal or psy­cho­lo­gic­al impair­ment are de­pend­ent on help from oth­ers in their daily activ­it­ies or way of liv­ing.107

105 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

106 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

107 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

Art. 67b108  

b. Con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der

 

1 If a per­son has com­mit­ted a felony or mis­de­mean­our against one or more spe­cif­ic per­sons or against per­sons in a spe­cif­ic group, and if there is a risk that he will com­mit fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours in the event of hav­ing con­tact with such per­sons, the court may im­pose a con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der of up to five years.

2 By means of a con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der the court may pro­hib­it the of­fend­er from:

a.
con­tact­ing one or more spe­cif­ic per­sons or per­sons in a spe­cif­ic group dir­ectly or via third parties, in par­tic­u­lar by tele­phone, in writ­ing or on­line, or em­ploy­ing, ac­com­mod­at­ing, edu­cat­ing, caring for such per­sons or as­so­ci­at­ing with such per­sons in any oth­er way;
b.
ap­proach­ing a spe­cif­ic per­son or com­ing with­in a spe­cif­ic dis­tance of that per­son’s home;
c.
be­ing present in spe­cif­ic loc­a­tions, in par­tic­u­lar spe­cif­ic streets, areas or dis­tricts.

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may use tech­nic­al devices that are se­curely at­tached to the of­fend­er in or­der to en­force the pro­hib­i­tion or­der. These devices may in par­tic­u­lar serve to de­term­ine the of­fend­er’s loc­a­tion.

4 The court may or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance for the dur­a­tion of the pro­hib­i­tion or­der.

5 On ap­plic­a­tion from the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity, it may ex­tend lim­ited pro­hib­i­tion or­ders by a max­im­um of five years in each case if this is ne­ces­sary to pre­vent the of­fend­er from com­mit­ting fur­ther felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours against minors or oth­er es­pe­cially vul­ner­able per­sons.

108 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

Art. 67c109  

c. Com­mon pro­vi­sions

En­force­ment of pro­hib­i­tion or­ders

 

1 A pro­hib­i­tion or­der comes in­to ef­fect on the day on which the judg­ment takes full leg­al ef­fect.

2 The dur­a­tion of a cus­todi­al sen­tence or of a cus­todi­al meas­ure (Art. 59–61 and 64) is not taken in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the term of the pro­hib­i­tion or­der.

3 If the of­fend­er fails to com­plete the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od suc­cess­fully and if the sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence is ex­ecuted or a re­call to cus­tody is ordered in re­spect of a sen­tence or meas­ure, the term of the pro­hib­i­tion or­der is cal­cu­lated from the day on which the of­fend­er is re­leased on pa­role or gran­ted fi­nal re­lease or on which the sanc­tion is re­voked or re­mit­ted.

4 If the of­fend­er com­pletes the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od suc­cess­fully, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall de­cide on any modi­fic­a­tion of the con­di­tions or term of the pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der Art­icle 67 para­graph 1 or Art­icle 67b, or on wheth­er the pro­hib­i­tion or­der should be re­voked.

5 The of­fend­er may ap­ply to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity for a modi­fic­a­tion of the con­di­tions or term of the pro­hib­i­tion or­der, or to have the pro­hib­i­tion or­der re­voked:

a.
in the case of a pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der Art­icle 67 para­graph 1 or un­der Art­icle 67b: after the or­der has been in force for two years;
b.
in the case of a lim­ited pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der Art­icle 67 para­graph 2: after half of the term of the pro­hib­i­tion or­der, provided the or­der has been in force for at least three years;
c.110
...
d.111
in the case of a lifelong pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der Art­icle 67 para­graph 2bis: after the or­der has been in force for ten years.

6 If it is con­sidered un­likely that the of­fend­er will com­mit any fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours by mis­us­ing an activ­ity or by hav­ing con­tact with spe­cif­ic per­sons of a spe­cif­ic group to and the of­fend­er has provided reas­on­able com­pens­a­tion for the loss, dam­age or in­jury caused, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall re­voke the pro­hib­i­tion or­der in cases fall­ing un­der para­graph 4 or 5.

6bis Pro­hib­i­tion or­ders un­der Art­icle 67 para­graphs 3 or 4 may not re­voked.112

7 If the of­fend­er breaches an activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­der or a con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der or if he fails to com­ply with the as­so­ci­ated pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance, or if such as­sist­ance can­not be provided or is no longer re­quired, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall sub­mit a re­port to the court or the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity. The court or the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may re­voke or make a new or­der for pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance.

7bis The ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance for the en­tire dur­a­tion of the pro­hib­i­tion from car­ry­ing on an activ­ity or the con­tact and ex­clu­sion or­der.113

8 If the of­fend­er fails to com­ply with the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance dur­ing a pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, Art­icle 95 para­graphs 4 and 5 ap­ply.

9 If the of­fend­er breaches an activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­der or a con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der dur­ing a pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, Art­icle 294 and the pro­vi­sions on re­vok­ing a sus­pen­ded sen­tence or the sus­pen­ded part of a sen­tence and on a re­call to cus­tody in re­spect of a sen­tence or meas­ure ap­ply.

109 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

110 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

111 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

112 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

113 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 16 March 2018 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 123c Cst.), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 3803; BBl 2016 6115).

Art. 67d114  

Modi­fic­a­tion of a pro­hib­i­tion or­der or sub­sequent im­pos­i­tion of a pro­hib­i­tion or­der

 

1 If it be­comes ap­par­ent dur­ing the term of an activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­der or a con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der that in the of­fend­er’s case an ex­ten­sion of the pro­hib­i­tion or­der or an ad­di­tion­al such pro­hib­i­tion or­der is re­quired, the court may on ap­plic­a­tion from the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity ex­tend the pro­hib­i­tion or­der or im­pose an ad­di­tion­al pro­hib­i­tion or­der.

2 If it be­comes ap­par­ent dur­ing a cus­todi­al sen­tence or a cus­todi­al meas­ure that in the of­fend­er’s case a pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der Art­icle 67 para­graph 1 or 2 or un­der Art­icle 67b is re­quired, the court may im­pose this pro­hib­i­tion or­der on ap­plic­a­tion from the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity.

114 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

Art. 67e115  

3. Dis­qual­i­fic­a­tion from driv­ing

 

If the of­fend­er has used a mo­tor vehicle in or­der to com­mit a felony or mis­de­mean­our and where there is a risk of re-of­fend­ing, the court, in ad­di­tion to im­pos­ing a sen­tence or meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–64, may or­der that the of­fend­er for­feit his pro­vi­sion­al or full driv­ing li­cence for a peri­od of between one month and five years.

115 Ori­gin­ally: Art. 67b.

Art. 67f116  
 

116 No longer re­quired as a res­ult of No IV 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law on Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 68  

4. Pub­lic­a­tion of the judg­ment

 

1 If pub­lic­a­tion of a crim­in­al judg­ment is re­quired in the pub­lic in­terest, or in the in­terests of the per­son harmed or of the com­plain­ant, the court shall or­der pub­lic­a­tion at the ex­pense of the of­fend­er.

2 If pub­lic­a­tion of an ac­quit­tal or of a rul­ing of the pro­sec­u­tion ser­vice abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings is re­quired in the pub­lic in­terest, or in the in­terests of the ac­quit­ted per­son or former sus­pect, the court shall or­der pub­lic­a­tion at State ex­pense or at the ex­pense of the com­plain­ant.

3 Pub­lic­a­tion is made in the in­terests of the per­son harmed, com­plain­ant, ac­quit­ted per­son or former sus­pect only if such per­sons so re­quest.

4 The court de­cides on the form and ex­tent of pub­lic­a­tion.

Art. 69  

5. For­feit­ure

a. For­feit­ure of dan­ger­ous ob­jects

 

1 The court shall, ir­re­spect­ive of the crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity of any per­son, or­der the for­feit­ure of ob­jects that have been used or were in­ten­ded to be used for the com­mis­sion of an of­fence or that have been pro­duced as a res­ult of the com­mis­sion of an of­fence in the event that such ob­jects con­sti­tute a fu­ture danger to pub­lic safety, mor­als or pub­lic or­der.

2 The court may or­der that the ob­jects for­feited be rendered un­us­able or be des­troyed.

Art. 70  

b. For­feit­ure of as­sets

Prin­ciples

 

1 The court shall or­der the for­feit­ure of as­sets that have been ac­quired through the com­mis­sion of an of­fence or that are in­ten­ded to be used in the com­mis­sion of an of­fence or as pay­ment there­for, un­less the as­sets are passed on to the per­son harmed for the pur­pose of restor­ing the pri­or law­ful po­s­i­tion.

2 For­feit­ure is not per­mit­ted if a third party has ac­quired the as­sets in ig­nor­ance of the grounds for for­feit­ure, provided he has paid a con­sid­er­a­tion of equal value there­for or for­feit­ure would cause him to en­dure dis­pro­por­tion­ate hard­ship.

3 The right to or­der for­feit­ure is lim­ited to sev­en years; if, however, the pro­sec­u­tion of the of­fence is sub­ject to a longer lim­it­a­tion peri­od, this peri­od also ap­plies to the right to or­der for­feit­ure.

4 Of­fi­cial no­tice must be giv­en of for­feit­ure. The rights of per­sons harmed or third parties ex­pire five years after the date on which of­fi­cial no­tice is giv­en.

5 If the amount of the as­sets to be for­feited can­not be as­cer­tained, or may be as­cer­tained only by in­cur­ring a dis­pro­por­tion­ate level of trouble and ex­pense, the court may make an es­tim­ate.

Art. 71  

Equi­val­ent claim

 

1 If the as­sets sub­ject to for­feit­ure are no longer avail­able, the court may up­hold a claim for com­pens­a­tion by the State in re­spect of a sum of equi­val­ent value, which claim may be en­forced against a third party only if he is not ex­cluded by Art­icle 70 para­graph 2.

2 The court may dis­miss an equi­val­ent claim in its en­tirety or in part if the claim is likely to be un­re­cov­er­able or if the claim would ser­i­ously hinder the re­hab­il­it­a­tion of the per­son con­cerned.

3117

117 Re­pealed by An­nex 1 No 4 of the FA of 17 June 2022, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2024 (AS 2023 468; BBl 2019 6697).

Art. 72118  

For­feit­ure of as­sets of a crim­in­al or ter­ror­ist or­gan­isa­tion

 

The court shall or­der the for­feit­ure of all as­sets that are sub­ject to the power of dis­pos­al of a crim­in­al or ter­ror­ist or­gan­isa­tion. In the case of the as­sets of a per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in or sup­ports such an or­gan­isa­tion (Art. 260ter), it is pre­sumed that the as­sets are sub­ject to the power of dis­pos­al of the or­gan­isa­tion un­til the con­trary is proven.

118 Amended by An­nex No II 2 of the FedD of 25 Sept. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion on the Pre­ven­tion of Ter­ror­ism and its Ad­di­tion­al Pro­tocol and the Strength­en­ing of Crim­in­al Justice In­stru­ments for com­bat­ing Ter­ror­ism and Or­gan­ised Crime, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2021 (AS 2021 360; BBl 2018 6427).

Art. 73  

6. Use for the be­ne­fit of the per­son harmed

 

1 If as a res­ult of a felony or mis­de­mean­our a per­son has suffered harm and is not en­titled to be­ne­fits un­der an in­sur­ance policy, and if it is an­ti­cip­ated that the of­fend­er will not pay dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion, the court shall award the per­son harmed, at his re­quest, a sum of money up to the amount of dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion set by a court or agreed in a set­tle­ment with the per­son harmed and ob­tained from:

a.
the mon­et­ary pen­alty or fine paid by the of­fend­er;
b.
ob­jects and as­sets that have been for­feited, or the pro­ceeds of their sale after de­duc­tion of ex­penses;
c.
com­pens­at­ory claims;
d.
the amount of the good be­ha­viour bond.

2 The court may or­der such an award only if the per­son harmed as­signs the cor­res­pond­ing ele­ment of his claim to the State.

3 The can­tons shall provide a simple and quick pro­ced­ure for cases where their courts are not en­titled to make an award of this nature in a crim­in­al judg­ment.

Title Four: Execution of Custodial Sentences and Custodial Measures

Art. 74  

1. Prin­ciples

 

The hu­man dig­nity of the pris­on in­mates or of the in­mates of an in­sti­tu­tion for the ex­e­cu­tion of meas­ures must be re­spec­ted. Their rights may only be lim­ited to the ex­tent that that is re­quired for the depriva­tion of their liberty and their co-ex­ist­ence in the pen­al in­sti­tu­tion.

Art. 75  

2. Ex­e­cu­tion of cus­todi­al sen­tences

Prin­ciples

 

1 The ex­e­cu­tion of sen­tences must en­cour­age an im­prove­ment in the so­cial be­ha­viour of the pris­on in­mates, and in par­tic­u­lar their abil­ity to live their lives without of­fend­ing again. The con­di­tions un­der which sen­tences are ex­ecuted must cor­res­pond as far as pos­sible with those of nor­mal life, guar­an­tee the su­per­vi­sion of the pris­on in­mates, coun­ter­act the harm­ful con­sequences of the depriva­tion of liberty and take ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count of the need to pro­tect the gen­er­al pub­lic, the in­sti­tu­tion staff and oth­er in­mates.

2 ...119

3 The in­sti­tu­tion rules shall provide that a sen­tence man­age­ment plan be drawn up in con­sulta­tion with the pris­on in­mate. This plan in par­tic­u­lar con­tains de­tails of the su­per­vi­sion offered, the op­por­tun­it­ies to work and re­ceive ba­sic or ad­vanced train­ing, mak­ing re­par­a­tion, re­la­tions with the out­side world and pre­par­a­tions for re­lease.

4 The pris­on in­mate must act­ively co­oper­ate in reso­cial­isa­tion ef­forts and the pre­par­a­tions for re­lease.

5 Ac­count is taken of the gender-spe­cif­ic con­cerns and needs of the pris­on in­mates.

6 If the pris­on in­mate is re­leased on pa­role or gran­ted fi­nal re­lease and it sub­sequently comes to light that on his re­lease he was sub­ject to an­oth­er ex­ecut­able judg­ment im­pos­ing a cus­todi­al sen­tence, ex­e­cu­tion of that cus­todi­al sen­tence is waived if:

a.
it was not ex­ecuted con­cur­rently with the oth­er cus­todi­al sen­tence for a reas­on with­in the con­trol of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­it­ies;
b.
the pris­on in­mate was able to as­sume in good faith that on his re­lease he was not sub­ject to an­oth­er ex­ecut­able judg­ment im­pos­ing a cus­todi­al sen­tence; and
c.
the re­in­teg­ra­tion of the pris­on in­mates would be pre­ju­diced.

119 Re­pealed by An­nex 1 No II 8 of the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code of 5 Oct. 2007, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 1881; BBl 2006 1085).

Art. 75a120  

Spe­cial se­cur­ity meas­ures

 

1 The Com­mis­sion un­der Art­icle 62d para­graph 2 shall with a view to a trans­fer to an open pen­al in­sti­tu­tion and the au­thor­isa­tion of a re­lax­a­tion in the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence as­sess the danger to the com­munity of the of­fend­er if:

a.
he has com­mit­ted a felony in terms of Art­icle 64 para­graph 1; and
b.
the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity can­not sat­is­fact­or­ily an­swer the ques­tion of wheth­er he is a danger to oth­er pris­on in­mates.

2 Re­lax­a­tion of the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence in­volves eas­ing the re­gime for the depriva­tion of liberty, in par­tic­u­lar by means of a trans­fer to an open in­sti­tu­tion, the grant­ing of re­lease on tem­por­ary li­cence, the au­thor­isa­tion of day re­lease em­ploy­ment or of ex­tern­al ac­com­mod­a­tion and the grant­ing of pa­role.

3 Danger to the com­munity is as­sumed if there is a risk that the pris­on in­mate will ab­scond and com­mit a fur­ther of­fence that severely pre­ju­dices the phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity of an­oth­er per­son.

120 Amended by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

Art. 76  

Place of ex­e­cu­tion

 

1 Cus­todi­al sen­tences are ex­ecuted in a se­cure or open pen­al in­sti­tu­tion.

2 The pris­on in­mate shall be ad­mit­ted to a se­cure pen­al in­sti­tu­tion or to the se­cure sec­tion of an open pen­al in­sti­tu­tion if there is a risk that that he will ab­scond or it is ex­pec­ted that he will com­mit fur­ther of­fences.

Art. 77  

Nor­mal ex­e­cu­tion

 

The pris­on in­mate nor­mally spends his work­ing, rest and leis­ure time in the in­sti­tu­tion.

Art. 77a  

Day re­lease em­ploy­ment and ex­tern­al ac­com­mod­a­tion

 

1 The cus­todi­al sen­tence is ex­ecuted in the form of day re­lease em­ploy­ment if the pris­on in­mate has served part of the cus­todi­al sen­tence, nor­mally a min­im­um one half, and it is not ex­pec­ted that he will ab­scond or com­mit fur­ther of­fences.

2 In day re­lease em­ploy­ment, the pris­on in­mate works out­side the in­sti­tu­tion and spends his rest and leis­ure time in the in­sti­tu­tion. The change to day re­lease em­ploy­ment nor­mally takes place fol­low­ing an ap­pro­pri­ate peri­od spent in an open in­sti­tu­tion or the open sec­tion of a se­cure in­sti­tu­tion. Work out­side the in­sti­tu­tion may also in­clude house­work and caring for chil­dren.

3 If the pris­on in­mate proves him­self to be of good be­ha­viour in day re­lease em­ploy­ment, the fur­ther ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence takes the form of ex­tern­al ac­com­mod­a­tion and day re­lease em­ploy­ment. Here the pris­on in­mate lives and works out­side the in­sti­tu­tion, but re­mains un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity.


Art. 77b121  

Semi-de­ten­tion

 

1 At the of­fend­er’s re­quest, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of no more than 12 months or the re­mainder of a sen­tence after tak­ing ac­count of time spent on re­mand of no more than six months may be served in the form of semi-de­ten­tion provided:

a.
it is not an­ti­cip­ated that the of­fend­er will ab­scond or com­mit fur­ther of­fences; and
b.
the of­fend­er does reg­u­lated work or train­ing or is sim­il­arly oc­cu­pied for at least 20 hours a week.

2 The pris­on in­mate works, is trained or sim­il­arly oc­cu­pied out­side the in­sti­tu­tion and spends his rest and leis­ure time in the in­sti­tu­tion.

3 Semi-de­ten­tion may be served in a spe­cial sec­tion of a re­mand centre provided the of­fend­er is guar­an­teed the re­quired su­per­vi­sion.

4 If the of­fend­er no longer meets the au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ments or if he fails to com­ply with the con­di­tions of semi-de­ten­tion im­posed by the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity des­pite be­ing warned to do so, the cus­todi­al sen­tence shall be served in the nor­mal man­ner.

121 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 78  

Sol­it­ary con­fine­ment

 

Sol­it­ary con­fine­ment in the form of un­in­ter­rup­ted sep­ar­a­tion from oth­er pris­on in­mates may only be ordered:

a.
for a max­im­um of one week at the start of the sen­tence in or­der to ini­ti­ate the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence;
b.
for the pro­tec­tion of the pris­on in­mate or of third parties;
c.
as a dis­cip­lin­ary sanc­tion;
d.122
to pre­vent oth­er pris­on in­mates from be­ing in­flu­enced by ideas that may en­cour­age them to carry out ter­ror­ist activ­it­ies, provided there is spe­cif­ic evid­ence of such an in­flu­ence.

122 In­ser­ted by No I 6 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in Force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

Art. 79123  
 

123 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 79a124  

Com­munity ser­vice

 

1 If it is not an­ti­cip­ated that the of­fend­er will ab­scond or com­mit fur­ther of­fences, the fol­low­ing sen­tences may be served in the form of com­munity ser­vice:

a.
a cus­todi­al sen­tence of no more than six months;
b.
the re­mainder of a sen­tence of no more than six months after tak­ing ac­count of time spent on re­mand; or
c.
a mon­et­ary pen­alty or a fine.

2 Com­munity ser­vice is not per­mit­ted as a means of serving an al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence.

3 Com­munity ser­vice is work that be­ne­fits so­cial in­sti­tu­tions, pub­lic works or per­sons in need. The work is un­paid.

4 Four hours of com­munity ser­vice cor­res­pond to one day of a cus­todi­al sen­tence, one daily pen­alty unit of a mon­et­ary pen­alty or one day of an al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence in the case of con­tra­ven­tions.

5 The ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity shall al­low the of­fend­er a spe­cif­ic peri­od not ex­ceed­ing two years with­in which to com­plete the com­munity ser­vice. In the case of com­munity ser­vice car­ried out in lieu of a fine, this peri­od may not ex­ceed one year.

6 If the of­fend­er fails to com­ply with the con­di­tions of com­munity ser­vice im­posed by the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity des­pite be­ing warned to do so, the cus­todi­al sen­tence shall be served in the nor­mal man­ner or in the form of semi-de­ten­tion, or the mon­et­ary pen­alty or fine shall be en­forced.

124 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 79b125  

Elec­tron­ic mon­it­or­ing

 

1 At the re­quest of the of­fend­er, the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may or­der the use of elec­tron­ic devices and their se­cure at­tach­ment to the of­fend­er’s body (elec­tron­ic mon­it­or­ing):

a.
in ex­e­cu­tion of a cus­todi­al sen­tence or an al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence of from 20 days to 12 months; or
b.
in lieu of day re­lease em­ploy­ment or day re­lease em­ploy­ment and ex­tern­al ac­com­mod­a­tion for a term of from 3 to 12 months.

2 The ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may or­der elec­tron­ic mon­it­or­ing only if:

a.
it is not an­ti­cip­ated that the of­fend­er will ab­scond or com­mit fur­ther of­fences;
b.
the of­fend­er lives in per­man­ent ac­com­mod­a­tion;
c.
the of­fend­er is do­ing reg­u­lated work or train­ing or is sim­il­arly oc­cu­pied for at least 20 hours a week or can be as­signed to do the same;
d.
the adults liv­ing with the of­fend­er in the same ac­com­mod­a­tion con­sent; and
e.
the of­fend­er agrees to the im­ple­ment­a­tion plan drawn up for him.

3 If the re­quire­ments of para­graph 2 let­ter a, b or c are no longer met or if the of­fend­er fails to ful­fil the ob­lig­a­tions set out in the im­ple­ment­a­tion plan, the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may dis­con­tin­ue the elec­tron­ic mon­it­or­ing and or­der the sen­tence to be served in the nor­mal man­ner or in the form of semi-de­ten­tion, or re­strict the free time avail­able to the of­fend­er.

125 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 80  

Oth­er forms of sen­tence ex­e­cu­tion

 

1 A de­par­ture from the rules gov­ern­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of sen­tences in fa­vour of the pris­on in­mates may be per­mit­ted:

a.
if the state of health of the pris­on in­mates so re­quires;
b.
in the event of preg­nancy, child­birth and for the time im­me­di­ately after child­birth;
c.
to en­able the moth­er and in­fant to be ac­com­mod­ated to­geth­er, provided this is also in the in­terests of the child.

2 If the sen­tence is not served in a pen­al in­sti­tu­tion, but in an­oth­er ap­pro­pri­ate in­sti­tu­tion, the pris­on in­mate is sub­ject to the reg­u­la­tions of that in­sti­tu­tion un­less the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity or­ders oth­er­wise.

Art. 81  

Work

 

1 The pris­on in­mate is ob­liged to work. Wherever pos­sible, the work should be ap­pro­pri­ate to his skills, edu­ca­tion and train­ing and his in­terests.

2 If he con­sents to do so, the pris­on in­mate may work for a private em­ploy­er.

Art. 82  

Ba­sic and ad­vanced train­ing

 

Where he shows the re­quired aptitude and the pos­sib­il­ity ex­ists, the pris­on in­mate is giv­en the op­por­tun­ity to un­der­go ba­sic and ad­vanced train­ing ap­pro­pri­ate to his skills.

Art. 83  

Wages

 

1 The pris­on in­mate re­ceives a wage for his work based on his per­form­ance and ac­cord­ing to the cir­cum­stances.

2 The pris­on in­mate may freely dis­pose of only part of his wage while serving his sen­tence. The re­main­ing part is with­held un­til the in­mate has been re­leased. The wage may neither be pledged, seized nor in­cluded in an in­solv­ent es­tate. Any as­sign­ment or pledge of the wage is null and void.

3 If the pris­on in­mate par­ti­cip­ates in ba­sic or ad­vanced train­ing in­stead of work in ac­cord­ance with his sen­tence man­age­ment plan, he re­ceives ap­pro­pri­ate re­mu­ner­a­tion.

Art. 84  

Re­la­tions with the out­side world

 

1 The pris­on in­mate has the right to re­ceive vis­it­ors and to cul­tiv­ate con­tacts with per­sons out­side the in­sti­tu­tion. Con­tact with close re­l­at­ives and friends shall be fa­cil­it­ated.

2 Con­tact may be mon­itored and for the pre­ser­va­tion of or­der and se­cur­ity in the pen­al in­sti­tu­tion it may be re­stric­ted or pro­hib­ited. The mon­it­or­ing of vis­its is not per­mit­ted without the know­ledge of those con­cerned. The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to pro­ced­ur­al meas­ures in or­der to se­cure evid­ence for the pur­poses of a pro­sec­u­tion.

3 Cler­ics, doc­tors, at­tor­neys, not­ar­ies and guard­i­ans as well as per­sons with com­par­able du­ties may be per­mit­ted to com­mu­nic­ate freely with the pris­on in­mates sub­ject to the gen­er­al in­sti­tu­tion rules.

4 Con­tact with de­fence at­tor­neys must be per­mit­ted. Vis­its from the de­fence at­tor­ney may be su­per­vised but con­ver­sa­tions may not be listened in on. In­spect­ing the con­tent of cor­res­pond­ence and at­tor­neys' doc­u­ments is not per­mit­ted. Con­tact with at­tor­neys may be pro­hib­ited by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the event of ab­use.

5 Com­mu­nic­a­tions with the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies may not be mon­itored.

6 The pris­on in­mate shall be gran­ted re­lease on tem­por­ary li­cence to an ap­pro­pri­ate ex­tent in or­der to cul­tiv­ate re­la­tions with the out­side world, pre­pare for his re­lease or where there are spe­cial cir­cum­stances, provided his con­duct in cus­tody does not pre­clude this and there is no risk that he will ab­scond or com­mit fur­ther of­fences.

6bis Of­fend­ers sub­ject to in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion are not gran­ted re­lease on tem­por­ary li­cence or oth­er re­lax­a­tions of the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence dur­ing the sen­tence served pri­or to in­car­cer­a­tion.126

7 Art­icle 36 of the Vi­enna Con­ven­tion of 24 April 1963127 on Con­su­lar Re­la­tions and oth­er reg­u­la­tions un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law on vis­its and cor­res­pond­ence that are bind­ing on Switzer­land are re­served.

126 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 21 Dec. 2007 (In­def­in­ite In­car­cer­a­tion of Ex­tremely Dan­ger­ous Of­fend­ers), in force since 1 Aug. 2008 (AS 2008 29612964; BBl 2006 889).

127 SR 0.191.02

Art. 85  

Searches and in­spec­tions

 

1 The per­son­al ef­fects and the ac­com­mod­a­tion of the pris­on in­mate may be searched in the in­terests of main­tain­ing or­der and se­cur­ity in the pen­al in­sti­tu­tion.

2 A pris­on in­mate who is sus­pec­ted of con­ceal­ing un­per­mit­ted art­icles about his per­son or in his body, may be sub­jec­ted to a body search. The search must be con­duc­ted by a per­son of the same gender. If the re­mov­al of cloth­ing is re­quired, this must be car­ried out in the ab­sence of oth­er pris­on in­mates. Searches of body cav­it­ies must be car­ried out by a doc­tor or oth­er med­ic­ally qual­i­fied staff.

Art. 86  

Pa­role

a. Grant­ing of pa­role

 

1 If the pris­on in­mate has served two thirds of his sen­tence, provided this amounts to at least three months, he shall be re­leased on pa­role by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity if this is jus­ti­fied by his con­duct while in cus­tody and it is not ex­pec­ted that he will com­mit fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours.

2 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall as­sess ex of­fi­cio wheth­er the in­mate may be re­leased on pa­role. It shall ob­tain a re­port from the in­sti­tu­tion board. The pris­on in­mate shall be gran­ted a hear­ing.

3 If pa­role is re­fused, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity must re­as­sess the ques­tion of wheth­er pa­role may be gran­ted at least once each year.

4 If the pris­on in­mate has served half of his sen­tence, provided this amounts to at least three months, he may be re­leased on pa­role by way of ex­cep­tion, if ex­cep­tion­al per­son­al cir­cum­stances jus­ti­fy this.

5 In the case of per­sons serving a life sen­tence, pa­role un­der para­graph 1 is pos­sible at the earli­est after 15 years, and un­der para­graph 4 at the earli­est after ten years.

Art. 87  

b. Pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od

 

1 A per­son re­leased on pa­role is made sub­ject to a pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od of a dur­a­tion that cor­res­ponds to the re­mainder of his sen­tence. The peri­od however amounts to at least one year and no more than five years.

2 The ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity shall nor­mally or­der pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance for the dur­a­tion of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od. It may im­pose con­duct or­ders on the per­son re­leased on pa­role.

3 If pa­role is gran­ted to an in­mate serving a cus­todi­al sen­tence for an of­fence men­tioned in Art­icle 64 para­graph 1, and if on ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od a con­tinu­ation of the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or the con­duct or­ders ap­pear to be re­quired in or­der to re­duce the risk of fur­ther of­fences of this type be­ing com­mit­ted, the court may at the re­quest of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity ex­tend the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or the con­duct or­ders in each case by one to five years or im­pose a new con­duct or­der for this peri­od. A re­call to cus­tody in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 95 para­graph 5 is not pos­sible in such cases.

Art. 88  

c. Suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of pro­ba­tion

 

If the per­son re­leased on pa­role is of good be­ha­viour throughout the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, he is gran­ted fi­nal re­lease.

Art. 89  

d. Breach of pro­ba­tion

 

1 If a per­son re­leased on pa­role com­mits a felony or mis­de­mean­our dur­ing the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, the court judging the new of­fence shall or­der his re­call to cus­tody.

2 If, des­pite the com­mis­sion of a felony or mis­de­mean­our dur­ing the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, it is not ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er will com­mit fur­ther of­fences, the court shall dis­pense with a re­call to cus­tody. It may ad­mon­ish the of­fend­er and ex­tend the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od by no more than half of the peri­od ori­gin­ally fixed by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity. If the ex­ten­sion is ordered after the ex­piry of the ori­gin­al pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od, it be­gins on the day on which it is ordered. The pro­vi­sions on pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and con­duct or­ders ap­ply (Art. 93–95).

3 If a per­son re­leased on pa­role fails to com­ply with the con­di­tions of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or dis­reg­ards the con­duct or­ders, Art­icle 95 para­graphs 3–5 ap­plies.

4 A re­call to cus­tody may not be ordered if three years have elapsed since the ex­piry of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od.

5 Any peri­od of time spent on re­mand that the of­fend­er has served dur­ing the re­call to cus­tody pro­ceed­ings is taken in­to ac­count in the re­mainder of his sen­tence.

6 If the re­quire­ments for an un­sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence are ful­filled due to the new of­fence and if this co­in­cides with the re­mainder of the sen­tence that must be ex­ecuted by the re­call to cus­tody, the court shall im­pose a cu­mu­lat­ive sen­tence in ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 49 a. The rules on pa­role again ap­ply to this sen­tence. If only the re­mainder of the sen­tence is ex­ecuted, Art­icle 86 para­graphs 1–4 ap­plies.

7 If the re­mainder of a sen­tence that must be ex­ecuted in ac­cord­ance with a de­cision on re­call to cus­tody co­in­cides with the ex­e­cu­tion of a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61, Art­icle 57 para­graphs 2 and 3 ap­plies.

Art. 90  

3. Ex­e­cu­tion of meas­ures

 

1 A per­son sub­ject to the ex­e­cu­tion of a meas­ure un­der Art­icles 59–61, may only be ac­com­mod­ated without in­ter­rup­tion sep­ar­ately from the oth­er in­mates of an in­sti­tu­tion for the ex­e­cu­tion of meas­ures if this is es­sen­tial:

a.
as a tem­por­ary thera­peut­ic meas­ure;
b.
for the pro­tec­tion of oth­er in­mates of the in­sti­tu­tion or of third parties;
c.
as a dis­cip­lin­ary sanc­tion;
d.128
to pre­vent oth­er pris­on in­mates from be­ing in­flu­enced by ideas that may en­cour­age them to carry out ter­ror­ist activ­it­ies, provided there is spe­cif­ic evid­ence of such an in­flu­ence.

2 At the start of the ex­e­cu­tion of the meas­ure, a sen­tence man­age­ment plan is drawn up in con­sulta­tion with the in­mate or his leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive. This in­cludes in par­tic­u­lar de­tails of the treat­ment of the in­mate's men­tal dis­order, de­pend­ence or de­vel­op­ment­al dis­order and on meas­ures to pre­vent the en­dan­ger­ment of oth­ers.

2bis Meas­ures un­der Art­icles 59–61 and 64 may be ex­ecuted in the form of ex­tern­al ac­com­mod­a­tion and day re­lease em­ploy­ment if there is a jus­ti­fied opin­ion that this will sig­ni­fic­antly con­trib­ute to the aim of the meas­ure be­ing achieved, and if there is no risk that the in­mate will ab­scond or will com­mit fur­ther of­fences. Art­icle 77a para­graphs 2 and 3 ap­plies by ana­logy.129

3 If the in­mate is able to work, he is re­quired to work to the ex­tent that his in-pa­tient treat­ment or care re­quires or per­mits. Art­icles 81–83 ap­ply in an ana­log­ous man­ner.

4 Art­icle 84 ap­plies by ana­logy to the re­la­tions of the in­mates of an in­sti­tu­tion for the ex­e­cu­tion of meas­ures with the out­side world, un­less ad­di­tion­al re­stric­tions are re­quired for reas­ons re­lat­ing to the in-pa­tient treat­ment.

4bis Art­icle 75a ap­plies by ana­logy to ad­mis­sion to an open in­sti­tu­tion and to the au­thor­isa­tion of a re­lax­a­tion in the meas­ures re­gime.130

4ter Dur­ing lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion, it is not per­mit­ted to au­thor­ise re­lease on tem­por­ary li­cence or a re­lax­a­tion of the sen­tence re­gime.131

5 Art­icle 85 ap­plies by ana­logy to searches and in­spec­tions.

128 In­ser­ted by No I 6 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in Force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

129 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

130 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

131 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 21 Dec. 2007 (In­def­in­ite In­car­cer­a­tion of Ex­tremely Dan­ger­ous Of­fend­ers), in force since 1 Aug. 2008 (AS 2008 29612964; BBl 2006 889).

Art. 91  

4. Gen­er­al pro­vi­sions

Dis­cip­lin­ary reg­u­la­tions

 

1 Dis­cip­lin­ary sanc­tions may be im­posed on pris­on in­mates and in­mates of an in­sti­tu­tion for the ex­e­cu­tion of meas­ures who are guilty of in­fringing the in­sti­tu­tion reg­u­la­tions or the sen­tence man­age­ment plan.

2 Dis­cip­lin­ary sanc­tions are:

a.
a rep­rim­and;
b.
the tem­por­ary with­draw­al or re­stric­tion of the right to use money, par­ti­cip­ate in re­cre­ation­al activ­it­ies or have ex­tern­al con­tacts;
c.132
a fine; and
d.133
sol­it­ary con­fine­ment as an ad­di­tion­al re­stric­tion of liberty.

3 The can­tons shall en­act dis­cip­lin­ary reg­u­la­tions ap­plic­able to the ex­e­cu­tion of sen­tences and meas­ures. The reg­u­la­tions de­tail the dis­cip­lin­ary of­fences, the sanc­tions and how they are fixed, and reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure.

132 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 24 March 2006 (Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sanc­tions and the Re­gister of Con­vic­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 35393544; BBl 2005 4689).

133 Ori­gin­ally let. c.

Art. 92  

In­ter­rup­tion of ex­e­cu­tion

 

The ex­e­cu­tion of sen­tences and meas­ures may be in­ter­rup­ted for good cause.

Art. 92a134  

Right to in­form­a­tion

 

1 Vic­tims and re­l­at­ives of vic­tims as defined in Art­icle 1 para­graphs 1 and 2 of the Vic­tim Sup­port Act of 23 March 2007135 (VSA) and third parties who have a le­git­im­ate in­terest may make a writ­ten re­quest to the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity for the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:

a.
the time of ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence or meas­ure im­posed on the of­fend­er, in­sti­tu­tion re­spons­ible for ex­e­cu­tion, the form of ex­e­cu­tion if it dif­fers from nor­mal, in­ter­rup­tions and re­lax­a­tions in the sen­tence or meas­ure, (Art. 75a para. 2), pa­role and fi­nal re­lease, and the re­act­iv­a­tion of the ex­e­cu­tion of a sen­tence or meas­ure;
b.
im­me­di­ate no­ti­fic­a­tion of the es­cape of an of­fend­er and of his or her re­cap­ture.

2 The ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity de­cides on the re­quest after con­sult­ing the of­fend­er.

3 It may re­fuse to provide the in­form­a­tion or re­voke a pre­vi­ous de­cision to provide in­form­a­tion only if the of­fend­er’s le­git­im­ate in­terests jus­ti­fy this.

4 If the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity ap­proves a re­quest, it shall ad­vise the per­son en­titled to in­form­a­tion of the con­fid­en­ti­al­ity of the in­form­a­tion dis­closed. Per­sons en­titled to vic­tim sup­port un­der the VSA are not re­quired to main­tain con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in their deal­ings with a coun­sel­lor at a coun­selling ser­vice un­der Art­icle 9 VSA.

134 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014 on Vic­tims’ Right to In­form­a­tion, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 1623; BBl 2014 889913). See also the trans­ition­al pro­vi­sion to this amend­ment at the end of the text.

135 SR 312.5

Title Five: Probation Assistance, Conduct Orders and Voluntary Social Supervision

Art. 93  

Pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance

 

1 Pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance is in­ten­ded to pro­tect the pro­ba­tion­ers from re­offend­ing and en­able their so­cial in­teg­ra­tion. The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity for pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance provides and ar­ranges for the re­quired so­cial and spe­cial­ist ser­vices.

2 Per­sons work­ing in the field of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance must treat mat­ters that come to their know­ledge in the course of their work as con­fid­en­tial. They may dis­close in­form­a­tion on the per­son­al cir­cum­stances of a pro­ba­tion­er to third parties only if the pro­ba­tion­er or the per­son in charge of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance has con­sen­ted in writ­ing.

3 The au­thor­it­ies for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of crim­in­al justice may ob­tain a re­port on the pro­ba­tion­er from the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity for pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance.

Art. 94136  

Con­duct or­ders

 

1 The con­duct or­ders that the court or the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may im­pose on the of­fend­er for dur­a­tion of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od re­late in par­tic­u­lar to the prac­tice of a pro­fes­sion, place of res­id­ence, driv­ing mo­tor vehicles, re­par­a­tion and med­ic­al and psy­cho­lo­gic­al ther­apy.

2 In the case of of­fences against sexu­al in­teg­rity, the of­fend­er may be re­quired to at­tend a course.

136 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

Art. 95  

Gen­er­al pro­vi­sions

 

1 Pri­or to mak­ing their de­cision on pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and con­duct or­ders, the court and the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may ob­tain a re­port from the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for su­per­vising the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and the con­duct or­ders or for en­for­cing activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­ders or con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­ders.137 The per­son con­cerned may state his opin­ion on the re­port. Dif­fer­ences of opin­ion must be re­cor­ded in the re­port.

2 The or­der­ing of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance and con­duct or­ders must be noted and jus­ti­fied in the judg­ment or the de­cision.

3 If the of­fend­er fails to com­ply with the con­di­tions of pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or dis­reg­ards the con­duct or­ders or if the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance or con­duct or­ders can­not be im­ple­men­ted or are no longer re­quired, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall sub­mit a re­port to the court or the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for the ex­e­cu­tion of sen­tences and meas­ures.

4 The court or the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity may in the cases men­tioned in para­graph 3:

a.
ex­tend the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od by one half;
b.
re­voke or re­or­gan­ise the pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance;
c.
modi­fy or re­voke the con­duct or­ders or is­sue new con­duct or­ders.

5 The court may in the cases in para­graph 3 re­voke the sus­pen­ded sen­tence or or­der the re­call to cus­tody for the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence or meas­ure if it is ser­i­ously ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er will com­mit fur­ther of­fences.

137 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

Art. 96  

So­cial as­sist­ance

 

The can­tons shall guar­an­tee the pro­vi­sion of so­cial as­sist­ance for the dur­a­tion of the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and of the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence which may be claimed vol­un­tar­ily.

Title Six: Statute of Limitations

Art. 97  

1. Lim­it­a­tion of pro­sec­u­tion rights

Peri­ods

 

1 The right to pro­sec­ute is sub­ject to a time lim­it of:

a.
30 years if the of­fence car­ries a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life;
b.
15 years if the of­fence car­ries a cus­todi­al sen­tence of more than three years;
c.
10 years if the of­fence car­ries a cus­todi­al sen­tence of three years;
d.
sev­en years if the of­fence car­ries a dif­fer­ent pen­alty.138

2 In the case of sexu­al acts with chil­dren (Art. 187) and in the case of­fences un­der Art­icles 111, 113, 122, 124, 182, 189–191, 193, 193a, 195 and 197 para­graph 3 in­volving a child un­der 16, the lim­it­a­tion peri­od in each case runs at least un­til the vic­tim has at­tained the age of 25.139

3 If a judg­ment is is­sued by a court of first in­stance be­fore ex­piry of the lim­it­a­tion peri­od, the time lim­it no longer ap­plies.

4 The lim­it­a­tion of the right to pro­sec­ute in the case of sexu­al acts with chil­dren (Art. 187) and de­pend­ent minors (Art. 188) and of­fences un­der Art­icles 111–113, 122, 182, 189–191 and 195 in­volving a child un­der 16 is gov­erned by para­graphs 1–3 if the of­fence was com­mit­ted be­fore the amend­ment of 5 Oc­to­ber 2001140 came in­to force and the lim­it­a­tion of the right to pro­sec­ute had not yet taken ef­fect.141

138 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 21 June 2013 (Ex­ten­sion of Pro­sec­u­tion Time Lim­its), in force since 1 Jan. 2014 (AS 20134417; BBl 2012 9253).

139 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

140 AS 2002 2993

141 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FedD of 24 March 2006 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Op­tion­al Pro­tocol of 25 May 2000 to the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child, on the Sale of Chil­dren, Child Pros­ti­tu­tion and Child Por­no­graphy, in force since 1 Dec. 2006 (AS 2006 54375440; BBl 2005 2807).

Art. 98  

Com­mence­ment

 

The lim­it­a­tion peri­od be­gins:

a.
on the day on which the of­fend­er com­mit­ted the of­fence;
b.
on the day on which the fi­nal act was car­ried out if the of­fence con­sists of a series of acts car­ried out at dif­fer­ent times;
c.
on the day on which the crim­in­al con­duct ceases if the crim­in­al con­duct con­tin­ues over a peri­od of time.
Art. 99  

2. Lim­it­a­tion peri­od for the ex­e­cu­tion of a sen­tence

Peri­ods

 

1 The right to ex­ecute a sen­tence is sub­ject to a lim­it­a­tion peri­od of:

a.
30 years if a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life has been im­posed;
b.
25 years if a cus­todi­al sen­tence of ten or more years has been im­posed;
c.
20 years if a cus­todi­al sen­tence at least five and less than ten years has been im­posed;
d.
15 years, if a cus­todi­al sen­tence of more than one and less than five years has been im­posed;
e.
five years if any oth­er sen­tence has been im­posed.

2 The lim­it­a­tion peri­od for a cus­todi­al sen­tence is ex­ten­ded:

a.
by the time that the of­fend­er spends serving without in­ter­rup­tion that or any oth­er cus­todi­al sen­tence or meas­ure that is ex­ecuted im­me­di­ately be­fore­hand;
b.
by the length of the pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od in the case of re­lease on pa­role.
Art. 100  

Com­mence­ment

 

The lim­it­a­tion peri­od be­gins on the day on which the judg­ment be­comes leg­ally en­force­able, and in the case of sus­pen­ded sen­tences or the ex­e­cu­tion of a meas­ure, on the day on which the ex­e­cu­tion of the pen­alty is ordered.

Art. 101  

3. Ex­clu­sion from lim­it­a­tion

 

1 There is no stat­ute of lim­it­a­tions for the of­fences of:

a.
gen­o­cide (Art. 264);
b.
crimes against hu­man­ity (Art. 264a para. 1 and 2);
c.
war crimes (Art. 264c para. 1–3, 264d para. 1 and 2, 264e para. 1 and 2, 264f, 264g para. 1 and 2 and 264h);
d.
felon­ies that have caused or threatened to cause danger to life and limb to a large num­ber of per­sons as a meth­od of ex­tor­tion or duress, in par­tic­u­lar through the use of means of mass de­struc­tion, the caus­ing of cata­strophes, or as part of a host­age tak­ing of­fence;
e.142
sexu­al acts with chil­dren (Art. 187 Nos 1 and 1bis), sexu­al ab­use and in­de­cent as­sault (Art. 189), rape (Art. 190), sexu­al acts with per­sons in­cap­able of prop­er judge­ment or res­ist­ance (Art. 191), ex­ploit­a­tion of a per­son in a po­s­i­tion of need or de­pend­ency (Art. 193) and de­cep­tion as to the sexu­al char­ac­ter of an act (Art. 193a) if com­mit­ted against chil­dren un­der the age of 12.143

2 If the right to pro­sec­ute the of­fence would have be­come time barred had Art­icles 97 and 98 ap­plied, the court may in its dis­cre­tion im­pose a more le­ni­ent pen­alty.

3 Para­graphs 1 let­ters a, c and d and para­graph 2 ap­ply if the right to pro­sec­ute or ex­ecute the sen­tence had not be­come time barred by 1 Janu­ary 1983 in ac­cord­ance with the law ap­plic­able un­til that point in time. Para­graph 1let­ter b ap­plies if the right to pro­sec­ute or ex­ecute the pen­alty has not be­come time barred un­der the pre­vi­ous law when the Amend­ment of 18 June 2010 to this Code comes in­to force. Para­graph 1 let­ter e ap­plies if the pro­sec­u­tion or the sen­tence has not be­come time barred by 30 Novem­ber 2008 in ac­cord­ance with the law ap­plic­able un­til that point in time.144 145

142 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 15 June 2012 (Non-ap­plic­ab­il­ity of Lim­it­a­tion to Sexu­al or Por­no­graphy Of­fences against Pre­pu­bes­cent Chil­dren), (AS 2012 5951; BBl 2011 5977). Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 16 June 2023 on a Re­vi­sion of the Law on Sex Of­fences, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2024 (AS 2024 27; BBl 2018 2827; 2022 687, 1011).

143 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 18 June 2010 on the Amend­ment of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion in Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Rome Statue of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­in­al Court, in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 4963; BBl 2008 3863).

144 Third sen­tence in­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 15 June 2012 (Non-ap­plic­ab­il­ity of Lim­it­a­tion to Sexu­al or Por­no­graphy Of­fences against Pre­pu­bes­cent Chil­dren), in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2012 5951; BBl 2011 5977).

145 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 18 June 2010 on the Amend­ment of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion in Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Rome Statue of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­in­al Court, in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 4963; BBl 2008 3863).

Title Seven: Corporate Criminal Liability

Art. 102  

Li­ab­il­ity un­der the crim­in­al law

 

1 If a felony or mis­de­mean­our is com­mit­ted in an un­der­tak­ing in the ex­er­cise of com­mer­cial activ­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with the ob­jects of the un­der­tak­ing and if it is not pos­sible to at­trib­ute this act to any spe­cif­ic nat­ur­al per­son due to the in­ad­equate or­gan­isa­tion of the un­der­tak­ing, then the felony or mis­de­mean­our is at­trib­uted to the un­der­tak­ing. In such cases, the un­der­tak­ing shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 5 mil­lion francs.

2 If the of­fence com­mit­ted falls un­der Art­icles 260ter, 260quin­quies, 305bis, 322ter, 322quin­quies, 322sep­ties para­graph 1 or 322octies, the un­der­tak­ing is pen­al­ised ir­re­spect­ive of the crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity of any nat­ur­al per­sons, provided the un­der­tak­ing has failed to take all the reas­on­able or­gan­isa­tion­al meas­ures that are re­quired in or­der to pre­vent such an of­fence.146

3 The court as­sesses the fine in par­tic­u­lar in ac­cord­ance with the ser­i­ous­ness of the of­fence, the ser­i­ous­ness of the or­gan­isa­tion­al in­ad­equa­cies and of the loss or dam­age caused, and based on the eco­nom­ic abil­ity of the un­der­tak­ing to pay the fine.

4 Un­der­tak­ings with­in the mean­ing of this title are:

a.
any leg­al en­tity un­der private law;
b.
any leg­al en­tity un­der pub­lic law with ex­cep­tion of loc­al au­thor­it­ies;
c.
com­pan­ies;
d.
sole pro­pri­et­or­ships147.

146 Amended by No I of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 (Crim­in­al Law on Cor­rup­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2016 (AS 2016 1287; BBl 2014 3591).

147 Ter­min­o­lo­gic­al foot­note rel­ev­ant to Ger­man only.

Art. 102a148  
 

148 Re­pealed by An­nex 1 No II 8 of the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code of 5 Oct. 2007, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 1881; BBl 2006 1085).

Part Two: Contraventions

Art. 103  

Defin­i­tion

 

Con­tra­ven­tions are acts that are pun­ish­able by a fine.

Art. 104  

Ap­plic­a­tion of the pro­vi­sions of the First Part

 

The pro­vi­sions of the First Part also ap­ply to con­tra­ven­tions, sub­ject to the fol­low­ing changes.

Art. 105  

No or con­di­tion­al ap­plic­ab­il­ity

 

1 The pro­vi­sions on sus­pen­ded and par­tially sus­pen­ded sen­tences (Art. 42 and 43), on ex­pul­sion (Art. 66a–66d) and on cor­por­ate crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity (Art. 102) do not ap­ply to con­tra­ven­tions.149

2 At­tempt and com­pli­city are of­fences only in the cases ex­pressly men­tioned in this Code.

3 Cus­todi­al meas­ures (Art. 59–61 and 64), activ­ity pro­hib­i­tion or­ders (Art. 67), con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­ders (Art. 67b) and the pub­lic­a­tion of the judg­ment (Art. 68) are per­mit­ted only in the cases ex­pressly men­tioned in this Code.150

149 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3–6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain crim­in­al of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

150 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2013 on Activ­ity Pro­hib­i­tion Or­ders and Con­tact Pro­hib­i­tion and Ex­clu­sion Or­ders, in force since 1 Jan. 2015 (AS 2014 2055; BBl 2012 8819).

Art. 106  

Fines

 

1 Un­less the law provides oth­er­wise, the max­im­um amount of a fine is 10,000 francs.

2 In its judg­ment, the court shall im­pose an al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence of at least one day and a max­im­um of three months for the event that the fine is wil­fully not paid.

3 The court de­term­ines the fine and the al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence based on the of­fend­er's cir­cum­stances so that the of­fend­er re­ceives the sen­tence that is com­men­sur­ate with his culp­able con­duct.

4 On ret­ro­spect­ive pay­ment of the fine, the of­fend­er is re­leased from the al­tern­at­ive cus­todi­al sen­tence.

5 Art­icles 35 and 36 para­graph 2 ap­ply by ana­logy to the col­lec­tion and con­ver­sion of the fine.151

151 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 107152  
 

152 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 108153  
 

153 This Art­icle con­tains no pro­vi­sions for tech­nic­al draft­ing reas­ons. Cor­rec­ted by the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee of the Fed­er­al As­sembly (Art. 58 para. 1 ParlA; SR 171.10).

Art. 109  

Lim­it­a­tion

 

The right to pro­sec­ute and to ex­ecute a sen­tence is sub­ject to a lim­it­a­tion peri­od of three years.

Part Three: Terms and Definitions

Art. 110  
 

1 Close re­l­at­ives of a per­son are his or her spouse, re­gistered part­ner, re­l­at­ives of dir­ect lin­eage, full sib­lings and half sib­lings, ad­opt­ive par­ents, ad­opt­ive sib­lings and ad­opt­ive chil­dren.154

2 Fam­ily mem­bers are per­sons who live in the same house­hold.

3 Pub­lic of­fi­cialsare the of­fi­cials and em­ploy­ees of a pub­lic ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity or of an au­thor­ity for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of justice as well as per­sons who hold of­fice tem­por­ar­ily or are em­ployed tem­por­ar­ily by a pub­lic ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity or by an au­thor­ity for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of justice or who carry out of­fi­cial func­tions tem­por­ar­ily.

3bis If a pro­vi­sion refers to the term "prop­erty", it also ap­plies to an­im­als.155

4 Of­fi­cial doc­u­mentsare writ­ten works in­ten­ded and de­signed to prove a fact of leg­al rel­ev­ance, or in­dic­a­tions that are in­ten­ded to prove such a fact. Re­cord­ings on im­age and data car­ri­ers are equi­val­ent to a writ­ten doc­u­ment, provided that they serve the same pur­pose.

5 Pub­lic deeds are of­fi­cial doc­u­ments is­sued by mem­bers of an au­thor­ity, pub­lic of­fi­cials and hold­ers of pub­lic of­fice in the ex­er­cise of­fi­cial powers. Of­fi­cial doc­u­ments that are is­sued in private law trans­ac­tions by the man­age­ment of com­mer­cial com­pan­ies, state mono­poly com­pan­ies or oth­er pub­lic cor­por­a­tions or in­sti­tu­tions are not pub­lic of­fi­cial doc­u­ments.

6 A day has 24 suc­cess­ive hours. The month and the year are cal­cu­lated ac­cord­ing to the cal­en­dar.

7 Time spent on re­mand is any form of de­ten­tion, re­mand, pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion or de­ten­tion pending ex­tra­di­tion im­posed in crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings.

154 Amended by Art. 37 No 1 of the Same-Sex Part­ner­ship Act of 18 June 2004, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 20055685; BBl 2003 1288).

155 AS 2006 3583

Book Two: Specific Provisions

Title One: Offences against Life and Limb

Art. 111  

1. Hom­icide

In­ten­tion­al hom­icide

 

Any per­son who kills a per­son in­ten­tion­ally, but without ful­filling the spe­cial re­quire­ments of the fol­low­ing art­icles, shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence156 of not less than five years.

156Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 1 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 112157  

Murder

 

Where the of­fend­er acts in a par­tic­u­larly un­scru­pu­lous man­ner, in which the motive, the ob­ject­ive or the meth­od of com­mis­sion is par­tic­u­larly de­praved, a cus­todi­al sen­tence for life or a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than ten years shall be im­posed.158

157Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

158 Pen­al­ties re­vised by No II 1 para. 16 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979).

Art. 113159  

Man­slaughter

 

Where the of­fend­er acts in a state of ex­treme emo­tion that is ex­cus­able in the cir­cum­stances, or in a state of pro­found psy­cho­lo­gic­al stress, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from one to ten years shall be im­posed.160

159Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

160 Pen­al­ties re­vised by No II 1 para. 16 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979).

Art. 114161  

Hom­icide at the re­quest of the vic­tim

 

Any per­son who for com­mend­able motives, and in par­tic­u­lar out of com­pas­sion for the vic­tim, causes the death of a per­son at that per­son’s own genu­ine and in­sist­ent re­quest shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty162 .

161Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

162Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 2 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 115  

In­cit­ing and as­sist­ing sui­cide

 

Any per­son who for selfish motives in­cites or as­sists an­oth­er to com­mit or at­tempt to com­mit sui­cide shall, if that oth­er per­son there­after com­mits or at­tempts to com­mit sui­cide, be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty163 .

163Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 3 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 116164  

In­fant­i­cide

 

If a moth­er kills her child either dur­ing de­liv­ery or while she is un­der the in­flu­ence of the ef­fects of giv­ing birth, sa cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.

164Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

Art. 117  

Hom­icide through neg­li­gence

 

Any per­son who causes the death of an­oth­er through neg­li­gence or reck­less­ness shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 118165  

2. Abor­tion

Il­leg­al abor­tion

 

1 Any per­son who ter­min­ates a preg­nancy with the con­sent of the preg­nant wo­man or in­cites or as­sists a preg­nant wo­man to ter­min­ate her preg­nancy without the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 119 be­ing ful­filled shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 Any per­son who ter­min­ates a preg­nancy without the con­sent of the preg­nant wo­man shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from one166 to ten years.

3 Any wo­man who has her preg­nancy ter­min­ated or oth­er­wise par­ti­cip­ates in the ter­min­a­tion of her preg­nancy fol­low­ing the end of the twelfth week since her last peri­od and without the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 119 be­ing ful­filled shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

4 Cases fall­ing un­der para­graphs 1 and 3 above are sub­ject to a lim­it­a­tion peri­od of three years.167

165Amended by No I of the FA of 23 March 2001 (Abor­tion), in force since 1 Oct. 2002 (AS 2002 29892992; BBl 1998 30055376).

166Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 4 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

167Amended by No I of the FA of 22 March 2002 (Lim­it­a­tion of the Right to Pro­sec­ute), in force since 1 Oct. 2002 (AS 2002 29862988; BBl 2002 26731649).

Art. 119168  

Leg­al abor­tion

 

1 The ter­min­a­tion of a preg­nancy is ex­empt from pen­alty in the event that the ter­min­a­tion is, in the judg­ment of a phys­i­cian, ne­ces­sary in or­der to be able to pre­vent the preg­nant wo­man from sus­tain­ing ser­i­ous phys­ic­al in­jury or ser­i­ous psy­cho­lo­gic­al dis­tress. The risk must be great­er the more ad­vanced the preg­nancy is.

2 The ter­min­a­tion of a preg­nancy is like­wise ex­empt from pen­alty if, at the writ­ten re­quest of a preg­nant wo­man, who claims that she is in a state of dis­tress, it is per­formed with­in twelve weeks of the start of the preg­nant wo­man’s last peri­od by a phys­i­cian who is li­censed to prac­tise his pro­fes­sion. The phys­i­cian must have a de­tailed con­sulta­tion with the wo­man pri­or to the ter­min­a­tion and provide her with ap­pro­pri­ate coun­selling.

3 If the wo­man is in­cap­able of judge­ment, the con­sent of her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive is re­quired.

4 The can­tons des­ig­nate the med­ic­al prac­tices and hos­pit­als that ful­fil the re­quire­ments for the pro­fes­sion­al con­duct of pro­ced­ures to ter­min­ate preg­nancy and for the pro­vi­sion of coun­selling.

5 An abor­tion is re­por­ted for stat­ist­ic­al pur­poses to the com­pet­ent health au­thor­ity, whereby the an­onym­ity of the wo­man con­cerned is guar­an­teed and med­ic­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity is pre­served.

168Amended by No I of the FA of 23 March 2001 (Abor­tion), in force since 1 Oct. 2002 (AS 2002 29892992; BBl 1998 30055376).

Art. 120169  

Con­tra­ven­tions by phys­i­cians

 

1 Any phys­i­cian who ter­min­ates a preg­nancy in terms of Art­icle 119 para­graph 2 and who fails, pri­or to the pro­ced­ure:

a.
to ob­tain a writ­ten re­quest from the preg­nant wo­man;
b.
to dis­cuss the ter­min­a­tion in de­tail with the preg­nant wo­man and to coun­sel her, to ad­vise her of the risks of the pro­ced­ure to her health, and to provide her with a writ­ten guide, the re­ceipt of which she must ac­know­ledge with her sig­na­ture, that con­tains:
1.
a list of agen­cies that provide coun­selling free of charge,
2.
a list of as­so­ci­ations and agen­cies that of­fer mor­al and ma­ter­i­al sup­port, and
3.
in­form­a­tion on the pos­sib­il­ity of hav­ing the child ad­op­ted;
c.
to sat­is­fy him­self that a preg­nant wo­man un­der 16 years of age has been in con­tact with a coun­selling agency spe­cial­ised in deal­ing with young people.
shall be li­able to a fine170.

2 Any phys­i­cian who fails to re­port the ter­min­a­tion of a preg­nancy to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 119 para­graph 5 shall be li­able to the same pen­alty.

169Amended by No I of the FA of 23 March 2001 (Abor­tion), in force since 1 Oct. 2002 (AS 2002 29892992; BBl 1998 30055376).

170Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 5 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 121171  
 

171Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 23 March 2001 (Abor­tion), with ef­fect from 1 Oct. 2002 (AS 2002 2989; BBl 1998 30055376).

Art. 122172  

3. As­sault

Ser­i­ous as­sault

 

Any per­son who wil­fully:

a.
in­flicts a life-threat­en­ing in­jury on an­oth­er;
b.
in­flicts a ser­i­ous in­jury on the per­son, or on an im­port­ant or­gan or limb of an­oth­er, makes an im­port­ant or­gan or limb un­us­able, makes an­oth­er per­man­ently un­fit for work, in­firm or men­tally ill, or who dis­fig­ures the face of an­oth­er badly and per­man­ently;
c.
causes any oth­er ser­i­ous dam­age to the per­son or to the phys­ic­al or men­tal health of an­oth­er,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from one year to ten years.

172 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 123173  

Com­mon as­sault

 

1. Any per­son who wil­fully causes in­jury to the per­son or the health of an­oth­er in any oth­er way shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

174 175

2. The of­fend­er shall be pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio,176

if he uses pois­on, a weapon or a dan­ger­ous ob­ject,

if he com­mits the act on a per­son, and in par­tic­u­lar on a child, who is un­able to de­fend him­self, or is un­der his pro­tec­tion or in his care.

if he is the spouse of the vic­tim and the act was com­mit­ted dur­ing the mar­riage or up to one year after di­vorce,177

if he is the re­gistered part­ner of the vic­tim and the of­fence was com­mit­ted dur­ing the peri­od of the re­gistered part­ner­ship or up to a year after its dis­sol­u­tion,178 or

if he is the het­ero­sexu­al or ho­mo­sexu­al part­ner of the vic­tim provided they have at any time co­hab­ited and the act was com­mit­ted at that time or up to one year after sep­ar­a­tion.179

173Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

174 Second para­graph re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, with ef­fect from 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

175 Amended by No II 2 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 3459; BBl 1999 1979).

176 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

177 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 3 Oct. 2003 (Pro­sec­u­tion of Of­fences with­in Mar­riage or Re­gistered Part­ner­ships), in force since 1 April 2004 (AS 2004 14031407; BBl 2003 19091937).

178 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 18 of the Same-Sex Part­ner­ship Act of 18 June 2004, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 20055685; BBl 2003 1288).

179 Ori­gin­ally para. 4. In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 3 Oct. 2003 (Pro­sec­u­tion of Of­fences with­in Mar­riage or Re­gistered Part­ner­ships), in force since 1 April 2004 (AS 2004 14031407; BBl 2003 19091937).

Art. 124180  

Fe­male gen­it­al mu­til­a­tion

 

1 Any per­son who mu­til­ates the gen­it­als of a fe­male per­son, im­pairs their nat­ur­al func­tion ser­i­ously and per­man­ently or dam­ages them in some oth­er way shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.181

2 Any per­son who has com­mit­ted the of­fence abroad but is now in Switzer­land and is not ex­tra­dited shall be li­able to the fore­go­ing pen­al­ties. Art­icle 7 para­graphs 4 and 5 ap­ply.

180Amended by No I of the FA of 30 Sept. 2011, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2012 (AS 20122575; BBl 2010 56515677).

181 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 125  

As­sault through neg­li­gence

 

1 Any per­son who causes in­jury to the per­son or the health of an­oth­er through neg­li­gence shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.182

2 If the in­jury is ser­i­ous, the of­fend­er shall be pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio.

182Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 2 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 126  

Acts of ag­gres­sion

 

1 Any per­son who com­mits acts of ag­gres­sion against an­oth­er that do not cause any in­jury to the per­son or health shall be li­able on com­plaint to a fine.

2 The of­fend­er is pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio if he com­mits the of­fence re­peatedly:

a.
on a per­son un­der his pro­tec­tion or in his care, and in par­tic­u­lar on a child;
b.
on his spouse dur­ing the mar­riage or up to a year after di­vorce; or
bbis.183
on his re­gistered part­ner dur­ing the peri­od of the re­gistered part­ner­ship or up to a year after its dis­sol­u­tion; or
c.
on his het­ero­sexu­al or ho­mo­sexu­al part­ner provided they have at any time co­hab­ited and the act was com­mit­ted at that time or up to one year after sep­ar­a­tion.184

183 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 18 of the Same-Sex Part­ner­ship Act of 18 June 2004, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 20055685; BBl 2003 1288).

184In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989 (AS 1989 2449; BBl 1985 II 1009). Amended by No I of the FA of 3 Oct. 2003 (Pro­sec­u­tion of Of­fences with­in Mar­riage or Re­gistered Part­ner­ships), in force since 1 April 2004 (AS 2004 14031407; BBl 2003 19091937).

Art. 127185  

4. En­dan­ger­ing the life or health of an­oth­er

Aban­don­ment

 

Any per­son who ex­poses a help­less per­son un­der his pro­tec­tion or care to a life-threat­en­ing danger or to a ser­i­ous and im­me­di­ate danger to health, or aban­dons the per­son to such a danger shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

185Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

Art. 128186  

Fail­ure to of­fer aid in an emer­gency

 

Any per­son who fails to of­fer aid to an­oth­er whom he has in­jured or to an­oth­er who is in im­me­di­ate life-threat­en­ing danger, in cir­cum­stances where the per­son either could reas­on­ably have been ex­pec­ted to of­fer aid,

any per­son who pre­vents or hinders oth­ers from of­fer­ing aid,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

186Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

Art. 128bis187  

False alarm

 

Any per­son who wil­fully and without good reas­on alerts a pub­lic or char­it­able se­cur­ity, res­cue or emer­gency ser­vice, and in par­tic­u­lar the po­lice, fire or am­bu­lance ser­vices shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

187In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 17 June 1994, in force since 1 Jan. 1995 (AS 1994 22902307; BBl 1991 II 969).

Art. 129188  

En­dan­ger­ing life

 

Any per­son who un­scru­pu­lously places an­oth­er in im­me­di­ate life-threat­en­ing danger shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

188Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

Art. 130–132189  
 

189Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 2449; BBl 1985 II 1009).

Art. 133190  

Brawl­ing

 

1 Any per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in a brawl that res­ults in the death of or in an as­sault caus­ing in­jury shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 A par­ti­cipant in a brawl who acts ex­clus­ively in self-de­fence or in or­der to sep­ar­ate the oth­er par­ti­cipants is not li­able to a pen­alty.

190Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

Art. 134191  

At­tack

 

Any per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in an at­tack on one or more oth­er per­sons which causes death or in­jury to a per­son at­tacked or an­oth­er shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty192.

191Amended by No I of the FA of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 Jan. 1990 (AS 1989 24492456; BBl 1985 II 1009).

192Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 6 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 135193  

Rep­res­ent­a­tions of acts of vi­ol­ence

 

1 Any per­son who pro­duces, im­ports, stores, mar­kets, pro­motes, ex­hib­its, of­fers, shows, makes ac­cess­ible, ac­quires, pro­cures or pos­sesses by elec­tron­ic means or oth­er­wise or makes avail­able sound, film or video re­cord­ings or oth­er items or rep­res­ent­a­tions in which acts of ex­treme vi­ol­ence to­wards adults or an­im­als or sim­u­lated acts of cruelty to­wards minors are por­trayed, without reas­on­able cul­tur­al or sci­entif­ic grounds there­for, and in do­ing so ser­i­ously of­fends ba­sic hu­man dig­nity shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty. If the items or rep­res­ent­a­tions have genu­ine acts of cruelty to­wards minors as their con­tent, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.

2 Any per­son who con­sumes or for their own con­sump­tion pro­duces, im­ports, stores, ac­quires, pro­cures by elec­tron­ic or oth­er means or pos­sesses the items or rep­res­ent­a­tions men­tioned in the first sen­tence of para­graph 1 above, shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty. If the items or rep­res­ent­a­tions have genu­ine acts of cruelty to­wards minors as their con­tent, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed

3 The items con­cerned shall be for­feited.

193Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 136194  

Ad­min­is­ter­ing sub­stances cap­able of caus­ing in­jury to chil­dren

 

Any per­son who ad­min­is­ters or makes avail­able for con­sump­tion to chil­dren un­der the age of 16 al­co­hol­ic bever­ages or oth­er sub­stances in such quant­it­ies as may en­danger their health shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

194Amended by No I of the FA of 20 March 2008, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2011 (AS 2009 2623, 2011 2559; BBl 2006 85738645).

Title Two: Offences against Property195

195Amended by No I of the FA of 17 June 1994, in force since 1 Jan. 1995 (AS 1994 22902307; BBl 1991 II 969).

Art. 137  

1. Of­fences against prop­erty

Un­law­ful ap­pro­pri­ation

 

1. Any per­son who for his own or for an­oth­er's un­law­ful gain ap­pro­pri­ates move­able prop­erty which be­longs to an­oth­er shall be li­able, un­less the spe­cial re­quire­ments of Art­icles 138-140 ap­ply, to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. If the of­fend­er has found the prop­erty or if the prop­erty has in­ad­vert­ently come in­to his pos­ses­sion,

if he does not act for fin­an­cial gain or

if he acts only to the det­ri­ment of a re­l­at­ive or fam­ily mem­ber,

the of­fence shall only be pro­sec­uted on com­plaint.

Art. 138  

Mis­ap­pro­pri­ation

 

1. Any per­son who for his own or an­oth­er's un­law­ful gain ap­pro­pri­ates move­able prop­erty be­long­ing to an­oth­er but en­trus­ted to him,

any per­son who makes un­law­ful use of fin­an­cial as­sets en­trus­ted to him for his own or an­oth­er's be­ne­fit,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Mis­ap­pro­pri­ation to the det­ri­ment of a re­l­at­ive or fam­ily mem­ber is pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint.

2. Any per­son who com­mits the fore­go­ing of­fence in his ca­pa­city as a mem­ber of a pub­lic au­thor­ity, or as a pub­lic of­fi­cial, guard­i­an, ad­viser, pro­fes­sion­al as­set man­ager, or in the prac­tice of a pro­fes­sion or a trade or the ex­e­cu­tion of a com­mer­cial trans­ac­tion for which he has been au­thor­ised by a pub­lic au­thor­ity, shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing ten years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.196

196Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 8 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 139  

Theft

 

1. Any per­son who for his own or for an­oth­er's un­law­ful gain, ap­pro­pri­ates move­able prop­erty be­long­ing to an­oth­er per­son with the ob­ject of per­man­ently de­priving the own­er of it shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. …197

3. The of­fend­er shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of at least six months and no more than ten years if he:

a.
steals for com­mer­cial gain;
b.
com­mits theft as a mem­ber of a group that has been formed for the pur­pose of car­ry­ing out re­peated acts of rob­bery or theft;
c.
car­ries a fire­arm or oth­er dan­ger­ous weapon for the pur­pose of com­mit­ting theft or causes an ex­plo­sion; or
d.
oth­er­wise re­veals a par­tic­u­lar danger due to the man­ner in which he com­mits the theft.198

4. Theft to the det­ri­ment of a re­l­at­ive or fam­ily mem­ber shall be pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint.

197 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, with ef­fect from 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

198 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 140  

Rob­bery

 

1. Any per­son who com­mits theft by us­ing force on an­oth­er, threat­en­ing an­oth­er with im­min­ent danger to life or limb, or mak­ing an­oth­er in­cap­able of res­ist­ance shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of at least six months and no more than ten years.199

Any per­son who, when caught in the act of com­mit­ting theft, com­mits any of the co­er­cive acts men­tioned in the fore­go­ing para­graph in or­der to re­tain the stolen prop­erty shall be li­able the same pen­al­ties.

2. The of­fend­er shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year200 if he car­ries with him a fire­arm or oth­er dan­ger­ous weapon for the pur­pose of com­mit­ting rob­bery.

3. The of­fend­er shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than two years,

if he com­mits rob­bery as a mem­ber of a group that has been formed for the pur­pose of car­ry­ing out re­peated acts of rob­bery or theft,

or if he rep­res­ents a par­tic­u­lar danger in any oth­er way due to the man­ner in which he com­mits rob­bery.

4. The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than five years, if the of­fend­er en­dangers the life of the vic­tim, com­mits a ser­i­ous as­sault on the vic­tim or oth­er­wise treats the vic­tim with cruelty.

199 Pen­al­ties re­vised by No II 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law on Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

200Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 12 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979).

Art. 141  

Re­mov­al of prop­erty

 

Any per­son who takes move­able prop­erty from the per­son en­titled to it to the ser­i­ous det­ri­ment of that per­son but without in­tend­ing to per­man­ently de­prive the en­titled per­son of it shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 141bis  

Un­law­ful use of fin­an­cial as­sets

 

Any per­son who for his own or an­oth­er's be­ne­fit un­law­fully uses fin­an­cial as­sets that have in­ad­vert­ently come in­to his pos­ses­sion shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 142  

Un­law­ful ab­strac­tion of en­ergy

 

1 Any per­son who un­law­fully ob­tains en­ergy from an in­stall­a­tion that serves to ex­ploit nat­ur­al power, and in par­tic­u­lar an elec­tric­al in­stall­a­tion shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 If the of­fend­er acts for his own or for an­oth­er's un­law­ful gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.

Art. 143  

Data theft

 

1 Any per­son who for his own or for an­oth­er's un­law­ful gain ob­tains for him­self or an­oth­er data that is stored or trans­mit­ted elec­tron­ic­ally or in some sim­il­ar man­ner and which is not in­ten­ded for him and has been spe­cially se­cured to pre­vent his ac­cess shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 The un­au­thor­ised ob­tain­ing of data to the det­ri­ment of a re­l­at­ive or fam­ily mem­ber is pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint.

Art. 143bis201  

Un­au­thor­ised ac­cess to a data pro­cessing sys­tem

 

1 Any per­son who ob­tains un­au­thor­ised ac­cess by means of data trans­mis­sion equip­ment to a data pro­cessing sys­tem that has been spe­cially se­cured to pre­vent his ac­cess shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 Any per­son who mar­kets or makes ac­cess­ible pass­words, pro­grams or oth­er data that he knows or must as­sume are in­ten­ded to be used to com­mit an of­fence un­der para­graph 1 shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

201 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FedD of 18 March 2011 (Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion on Cy­ber­crime), in force since 1 Jan. 2012 (AS 2011 6293; BBl 2010 4697).

Art. 144  

Crim­in­al dam­age

 

1 Any per­son who dam­ages, des­troys or renders un­us­able prop­erty be­long­ing to an­oth­er or in re­spect of which an­oth­er has a right of use shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 If the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted crim­in­al dam­age in the course of a pub­lic ri­ot, he shall be pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio.

3 If the of­fend­er has caused ma­jor dam­age, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed. The of­fence is pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio.202

202 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 144bis  

Dam­age to data

 

1. Any per­son who without au­thor­ity al­ters, de­letes or renders un­us­able data that is stored or trans­mit­ted elec­tron­ic­ally or in some oth­er sim­il­ar way shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

If the of­fend­er has caused ma­jor dam­age, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed. The of­fence is pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio.203

2. Any per­son who man­u­fac­tures, im­ports, mar­kets, ad­vert­ises, of­fers or oth­er­wise makes ac­cess­ible pro­grams that he knows or must as­sume will be used for the pur­poses de­scribed in para­graph 1 above, or provides in­struc­tions on the man­u­fac­ture of such pro­grams shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.204

203 Second para­graph amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

204 Second para­graph amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 145  

Mis­ap­pro­pri­ation and re­mov­al of prop­erty sub­ject to a pledge or li­en

 

Any debt­or who, with the in­ten­tion of caus­ing loss to his cred­it­ors, ap­pro­pri­ates, uses without au­thor­ity, dam­ages, des­troys, re­duces the value of or renders un­us­able prop­erty sub­ject to a pledge or li­en shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 146  

Fraud

 

1 Any per­son who with a view to se­cur­ing an un­law­ful gain for him­self or an­oth­er wil­fully in­duces an er­ro­neous be­lief in an­oth­er per­son by false pre­tences or con­ceal­ment of the truth, or wil­fully re­in­forces an er­ro­neous be­lief, and thus causes that per­son to act to the pre­ju­dice of his or an­oth­er's fin­an­cial in­terests, shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.205

3 Fraud to the det­ri­ment of a re­l­at­ive or fam­ily mem­ber is pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint.

205 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 147  

Com­puter fraud

 

1 Any per­son who with a view to his own or an­oth­er's un­law­ful gain, by the in­cor­rect, in­com­plete or un­au­thor­ised use of data, or in a sim­il­ar way, in­flu­ences the elec­tron­ic or sim­il­ar pro­cessing or trans­mis­sion of data and as a res­ult causes the trans­fer of fin­an­cial as­sets, thus oc­ca­sion­ing loss to an­oth­er, or im­me­di­ately there­after con­ceals such a trans­fer shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.206

3 Com­puter fraud to the det­ri­ment of a re­l­at­ive or fam­ily mem­ber is pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint.

206 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 148  

Mis­use of a cheque card or cred­it card

 

1 Any per­son who with a view to ob­tain­ing ser­vices of a fin­an­cial value and al­though in­cap­able of mak­ing or un­will­ing to make pay­ment uses a cheque card or cred­it card or sim­il­ar means of pay­ment that has been en­trus­ted to him by the is­suer there­of and thus causes loss to the is­suer, shall be li­able, provided the is­suer and the con­tract­ing en­ter­prise have taken reas­on­able meas­ures in or­der to pre­vent the ab­use of the card, to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.207

207 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art.148a208  

Un­law­ful claim for so­cial in­sur­ance or so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits

 

1 Any per­son who mis­leads a an­oth­er by provid­ing false or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion, fail­ing to dis­close in­form­a­tion or in any oth­er way or who com­pounds an ex­ist­ing er­ror so that he or an as­so­ci­ate ob­tains so­cial in­sur­ance or so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits to which he or his as­so­ci­ate is not en­titled shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 In minor cases, the pen­alty is a fine.

208 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3–6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain crim­in­al of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Art. 149  

Mak­ing off from a hotel, res­taur­ant or bar without pay­ment

 

Any per­son who ac­cepts ac­com­mod­a­tion, food or drink or oth­er ser­vices in a hotel, res­taur­ant, bar or sim­il­ar premises and dis­hon­estly makes off without mak­ing pay­ment there­for shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 150  

Ob­tain­ing a ser­vice without pay­ment

 

Any per­son who ob­tains a ser­vice without pay­ing, know­ing that the ser­vice is only rendered against pay­ment, and in par­tic­u­lar

makes use of pub­lic trans­port,

at­tends pub­lic per­form­ances, ex­hib­i­tions or sim­il­ar events,

or ob­tains ser­vices from a data pro­cessing device or a vend­ing ma­chine,

shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 150bis209  

Pro­duc­tion and mar­ket­ing of equip­ment for the un­au­thor­ised de­cod­ing of en­coded ser­vices

 

1 Any per­son who man­u­fac­tures, im­ports, ex­ports, trans­ports, mar­kets or in­stalls equip­ment, the com­pon­ents or data pro­cessing pro­grams of which are de­signed and are suit­able for the un­au­thor­ised de­cod­ing of en­coded tele­vi­sion or ra­dio pro­grammes or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vices shall be li­able on com­plaint to a fine.210

2 An at­tempt to com­mit the fore­go­ing of­fence or com­pli­city in the same is also an of­fence.

209 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 2 of the Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Act of 30 April 1997, in force since 1 Jan. 1998 (AS 19972187; BBl 1996III 1405).

210 Pen­al­ties re­vised by No II 1 para. 16 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979).

Art. 151  

Ma­li­ciously caus­ing fin­an­cial loss to an­oth­er

 

Any per­son who without a view to gain, by mak­ing rep­res­ent­a­tions or sup­press­ing in­form­a­tion, wil­fully mis­leads an­oth­er or wil­fully re­in­forces an er­ro­neous be­lief with the res­ult that the per­son in er­ror acts in such a way that he or an­oth­er in­curs a fin­an­cial loss shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 152  

False state­ments about com­mer­cial busi­ness

 

Any per­son who, wheth­er as founder, pro­pri­et­or, part­ner with un­lim­ited li­ab­il­ity, au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive or mem­ber of the man­age­ment board or the board of dir­ect­ors, or as an aud­it­or or li­quid­at­or of a trad­ing com­pany, a co-op­er­at­ive or any oth­er en­ter­prise which car­ries on com­mer­cial busi­ness,

makes or causes to be made to all the com­pany mem­bers, part­ners or co-op­er­at­ive mem­bers, or to the par­ti­cipants in any oth­er com­mer­cial en­ter­prise a false or in­com­plete state­ment of sub­stan­tial sig­ni­fic­ance by means of a pub­lic an­nounce­ment or no­tice, re­port or present­a­tion that could cause an­oth­er to dis­pose of his own as­sets in such a way that he sus­tains fin­an­cial loss,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 153  

False state­ments to the com­mer­cial re­gister au­thor­it­ies

 

Any per­son who causes an au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the Com­mer­cial Re­gister to make a false entry in the Re­gister or with­holds from such an au­thor­ity in­form­a­tion which is re­quired to be entered in the Re­gister shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 154211  

Crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity of mem­bers of the board of dir­ect­ors and the ex­ec­ut­ive board of com­pan­ies whose shares are lis­ted on a stock ex­change

 

1 Any per­son who, as a mem­ber of the board of dir­ect­ors or the ex­ec­ut­ive board of a com­pany whose shares are lis­ted on a stock ex­change, pays or ac­cepts re­mu­ner­a­tion that is not per­mit­ted in terms of Art­icle 735c let­ters 1, 5 and 6 of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions (CO)212, if ap­plic­able in con­junc­tion with Art­icle 735d num­ber 1 CO, shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years and to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 Any per­son who, as a mem­ber of the board of dir­ect­ors of a com­pany whose shares are lis­ted on a stock ex­change, car­ries out any of the fol­low­ing acts shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty:

a.213
del­eg­at­ing the man­age­ment of busi­ness wholly or partly to a leg­al en­tity in vi­ol­a­tion of Art­icle 716b para­graph 2 first sen­tence CO;
b.
delegating the voting rights of corporate bodies or delegating voting rights to custodian banks(Art. 689bpara. 2 CO);
c.
pre­vent­ing:
1.
the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation from con­tain­ing the pro­vi­sions spe­cified in Art­icle 626 para­graph 2 let­ters 1 and 2 CO,
2.
the gen­er­al meet­ing from be­ing able, an­nu­ally and in­di­vidu­ally, to elect the mem­bers and the chair of the board of dir­ect­ors, the mem­bers of the re­mu­ner­a­tion com­mit­tee and the in­de­pend­ent vot­ing rep­res­ent­at­ive (Art. 698 para. 2 no 2 and para. 3 no 1–3 CO),
3.
the gen­er­al meet­ing from be­ing able to vote on the re­mu­ner­a­tion that the board of dir­ect­ors has de­term­ined for it­self, the ex­ec­ut­ive board and the board of ad­visors (Art. 698 para. 3 no 4 CO),
4.
the share­hold­ers or their rep­res­ent­at­ives from be­ing able to ex­er­cise their rights by elec­tron­ic means (Art. 689c para. 6 CO).

3 If the per­pet­rat­or merely ac­cepts the pos­sib­il­ity that an of­fence un­der para­graph 1 or 2 may be com­mit­ted, he or she shall not be li­able to pro­sec­u­tion un­der these pro­vi­sions.

4 In cal­cu­lat­ing the mon­et­ary pen­alty, the court shall not be bound by the max­im­um value of a daily pen­alty unit (Art. 34 para. 2 first sen­tence); however, the mon­et­ary pen­alty may not ex­ceed six times the an­nu­al re­mu­ner­a­tion agreed with the com­pany con­cerned at the time of the of­fence.

211 Amended by An­nex No 5 of the FA of 19 June 2020 (Com­pany Law), in force since 1 Jan. 2023 (AS 2020 4005; 2022 109, 110; BBl 2017 399).

212 SR 220

213 Cor­rec­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly Draft­ing Com­mit­tee of 22 Nov. 2023, pub­lished on 6 Dec. 2023 (AS 2023 739).

Art. 155  

Coun­ter­feit­ing of goods

 

1. Any per­son who with a view to de­ceiv­ing an­oth­er in trade or busi­ness

man­u­fac­tures a product which ap­pears to have a high­er com­mer­cial value than its true com­mer­cial value, in par­tic­u­lar by be­ing an im­it­a­tion or coun­ter­feit ver­sion of an­oth­er product,

or im­ports, stores or mar­kets such a product,

shall be li­able, provided the act is not sub­ject to a more severe pen­alty un­der an­oth­er pro­vi­sion here­of, to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, un­less the act is sub­ject to a more severe pen­alty un­der an­oth­er pro­vi­sion here­of, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.214

214 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 3 Oct. 2008 on the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Re­vised Re­com­mend­a­tions of the Fin­an­cial Ac­tion Task Force, in force since 1 Feb. 2009 (AS 2009 361367; BBl 2007 6269).

Art. 156  

Ex­tor­tion

 

1. Any per­son who, with a view to se­cur­ing an un­law­ful gain for him­self or for an­oth­er, in­duces an­oth­er per­son by us­ing vi­ol­ence or the threat of ser­i­ously det­ri­ment­al con­sequences to be­have in such a way that he or an­oth­er sus­tains fin­an­cial loss shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, or if he re­peatedly com­mits the of­fence against the same per­son, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.215

3. If the of­fend­er uses vi­ol­ence against an­oth­er or if he threatens an­oth­er with an im­me­di­ate danger to life and limb, a pen­alty in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 140 here­of shall be im­posed.

4. If the of­fend­er threatens to en­danger the life and limb of a large num­ber of per­sons or to cause ser­i­ous dam­age to prop­erty in which there is a sub­stan­tial pub­lic in­terest, he shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year216.

215 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

216Term in ac­cord­ance with No II 1 para. 12 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979). This amend­ment has been taken in­to ac­count throughout the Second Book.

Art. 157  

Prof­it­eer­ing

 

1. Any per­son who for his own or an­oth­er's fin­an­cial gain or the prom­ise of such gain, ex­ploits the po­s­i­tion of need, the de­pend­ence, the weak­ness of mind or char­ac­ter, the in­ex­per­i­ence, or the fool­ish­ness of an­oth­er per­son to ob­tain a pay­ment or ser­vice which is clearly dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the con­sid­er­a­tion giv­en in re­turn,

any per­son who ac­quires a debt ori­gin­at­ing from an act of prof­it­eer­ing and sells or en­forces the same,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.217

217 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 158  

Crim­in­al mis­man­age­ment

 

1. Any per­son who by law, an of­fi­cial or­der, a leg­al trans­ac­tion or au­thor­isa­tion gran­ted to him, has been en­trus­ted with the man­age­ment of the prop­erty of an­oth­er or the su­per­vi­sion of such man­age­ment, and in the course of and in breach of his du­ties causes or per­mits that oth­er per­son to sus­tain fin­an­cial loss shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who acts in the same man­ner in his ca­pa­city as the man­ager of a busi­ness but without spe­cif­ic in­struc­tions shall be li­able to the same pen­alty.

If the of­fend­er acts with a view to se­cur­ing an un­law­ful fin­an­cial gain for him­self or an­oth­er, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.218

2. Any per­son who, with a view to se­cur­ing an un­law­ful gain for him­self or an­oth­er, ab­uses the au­thor­ity gran­ted to him by stat­ute, an of­fi­cial or­der or a leg­al trans­ac­tion to act on be­half of an­oth­er and as a res­ult causes that oth­er per­son to sus­tain fin­an­cial loss shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

3. Crim­in­al mis­man­age­ment to the det­ri­ment of a re­l­at­ive or fam­ily mem­ber is pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint.

218 Third para. amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 159  

Mis­use of salary de­duc­tions

 

Any em­ploy­er who breaches his ob­lig­a­tion to make use of a de­duc­tion from an em­ploy­ee's salary for the pay­ment of taxes, du­ties, in­sur­ance premi­ums or con­tri­bu­tions or in any oth­er way for the be­ne­fit of the em­ploy­ee and thus causes loss to the em­ploy­ee shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 160  

Hand­ling stolen goods

 

1. Any per­son who takes pos­ses­sion of, ac­cepts as a gift or as the sub­ject of a pledge, con­ceals, or as­sists in the dis­pos­al of goods which he knows or must as­sume have been ac­quired by way of an of­fence against prop­erty shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

The of­fend­er shall be li­able to the pen­alty ap­plic­able to the ori­gin­al of­fence if that pen­alty is re­duced.

If the ori­gin­al of­fence is pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint, the hand­ling of stolen goods is pro­sec­uted only if a com­plaint has been made in re­spect of the ori­gin­al of­fence.

2. If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from six months to ten years shall be im­posed.219

219 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 161220  
 

220 Re­pealed by No II 3 of the FA of 28 Sept. 2012, with ef­fect from 1 May 2013 (AS 2013 1103; BBl 2011 6873).

Art. 161bis221  
 

221In­ser­ted by Art. 46 of the Stock Ex­change Act of 24 March 1995 (AS 1997 68; BBl 1993 I 1369). Re­pealed by No II 3 of the FA of 28 Sept. 2012, with ef­fect from 1 May 2013 (AS 2013 1103; BBl 2011 6873).

Art. 162  

2. Breach of man­u­fac­tur­ing or trade secrecy

 

Any per­son who be­trays a man­u­fac­tur­ing or trade secret that he is un­der a stat­utory or con­trac­tu­al duty con­tract not to re­veal,

any per­son who ex­ploits for him­self or an­oth­er such a be­tray­al,

shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 163  

3. Bank­ruptcy and debt col­lec­tion felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours

Fraud­u­lent bank­ruptcy and fraud against seizure

 

1. Any debt­or who fic­ti­tiously re­duces his as­sets to the pre­ju­dice of his cred­it­ors, and in par­tic­u­lar

dis­poses of or con­ceals as­sets,

cre­ates fic­ti­tious debts,

ac­cepts fic­ti­tious claims as val­id or ar­ranges for the en­force­ment of such claims,

shall be li­able, if bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are com­menced against him or a cer­ti­fic­ate of un­sat­is­fied claims has been is­sued in his re­spect, to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. Sub­ject to the same re­quire­ments, any third party who car­ries out any of the fore­go­ing acts to the pre­ju­dice of cred­it­ors shall be li­able a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 164  

Re­duc­tion of as­sets to the pre­ju­dice of cred­it­ors

 

1. Any debt­or who re­duces his as­sets to the det­ri­ment of his cred­it­ors by

dam­aging, des­troy­ing or re­du­cing the value of any as­sets or ren­der­ing them un­us­able,

dis­pos­ing of any as­sets for no con­sid­er­a­tion or for a con­sid­er­a­tion that is clearly neg­li­gible in value,

or by waiv­ing, without ma­ter­i­al grounds, any rights which may ac­crue there­on or by re­noun­cing rights for no con­sid­er­a­tion,

shall be li­able, if bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are com­menced against him or a cer­ti­fic­ate of un­sat­is­fied claims has been is­sued in his re­spect, to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. Sub­ject to the same re­quire­ments, any third party who car­ries out any of the fore­go­ing acts to the pre­ju­dice of cred­it­ors shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 165  

Mis­man­age­ment

 

1. Any debt­or who in a man­ner oth­er than that in Art­icle 164 through mis­man­age­ment, in par­tic­u­lar through in­ad­equate cap­it­al pro­vi­sion, ex­cess­ive ex­pendit­ure, haz­ard­ous spec­u­la­tion, the neg­li­gent grant­ing or use of cred­it, the squan­der­ing of as­sets or gross neg­li­gence in the ex­er­cise of his pro­fes­sion or the man­age­ment of his as­sets,

causes or ag­grav­ates his ex­cess­ive in­debted­ness, causes his in­solv­ency or, in the know­ledge that he is un­able to pay, pre­ju­dices his fin­an­cial situ­ation,

shall be li­able, if bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are com­menced against him or a cer­ti­fic­ate of un­sat­is­fied claims is is­sued in his re­spect, to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1bis. If the debt­or re­ceives of­fi­cial sup­port to avert im­min­ent over-in­debted­ness or in­solv­ency, he shall be li­able to the same pen­alty.222

2. Any debt­or whose as­sets have been seized is pro­sec­uted solely on the com­plaint of a cred­it­or who has ob­tained a cer­ti­fic­ate of un­sat­is­fied claims against him.

The com­plaint must be filed with­in three months of re­ceipt of the cer­ti­fic­ate of un­sat­is­fied claims.

Any cred­it­or who has in­duced a debt­or to in­cur ir­re­spons­ible debts, un­reas­on­able ex­pendit­ure or to enter in­to haz­ard­ously spec­u­lat­ive trans­ac­tions, or who has ex­ploited the debt­or us­uri­ously, is barred from fil­ing a com­plaint.

222 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 166  

Fail­ure to keep prop­er ac­counts

 

Any debt­or who fails to com­ply with a stat­utory ob­lig­a­tion to which he is sub­ject to keep and pre­serve busi­ness ac­counts or draw up a bal­ance sheet, with the res­ult that his fin­an­cial po­s­i­tion is not or not fully as­cer­tain­able, shall be li­able, if bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are com­menced against him or a cer­ti­fic­ate of un­sat­is­fied claims has been is­sued in his re­spect fol­low­ing a seizure of as­sets in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 43 of the Fed­er­al Act of 11 April 1889223 on Debt En­force­ment and Bank­ruptcy (DEBA), to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 167  

Un­due pref­er­ence to cred­it­ors

 

Any debt­or who, in the know­ledge of his in­ab­il­ity to pay and with a view to show­ing pref­er­ence to some of his cred­it­ors to the pre­ju­dice of oth­ers, acts in or­der to achieve such an aim, and in par­tic­u­lar pays debts that are not due for pay­ment, pays due debts in a way that dif­fers from the nor­mal meth­ods, or provides se­cur­ity for a debt from his own means when he is not ob­liged to do so, shall be li­able, if bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are com­menced against him or a cer­ti­fic­ate of un­sat­is­fied claims has been is­sued in his re­spect, to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 168224  

Sub­orna­tion in en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings

 

1 Any per­son who:

a.
gives or prom­ises a cred­it­or or his rep­res­ent­at­ive spe­cial ad­vant­ages in or­der to ob­tain his vote at the cred­it­ors' meet­ing or on the cred­it­ors' com­mit­tee, or to ob­tain his con­sent to or re­jec­tion of a ju­di­cial com­pos­i­tion agree­ment;
b.
gives or prom­ises the ad­min­is­trat­or in bank­ruptcy, a mem­ber of the bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­tra­tion, the Com­mis­sion­er, or the li­quid­at­or spe­cial ad­vant­ages in or­der to in­flu­ence his de­cisions;
c.
causes an­oth­er to give or prom­ise ad­vant­ages spe­cified in let­ter a or b,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

224 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 169  

Dis­pos­al of seized as­sets

 

Any per­son who without prop­er au­thor­ity and to the pre­ju­dice of his cred­it­ors dis­poses of an as­set

that has been of­fi­cially seized or at­tached,

that has been of­fi­cially re­cor­ded in debt re­cov­ery, bank­ruptcy or re­ten­tion pro­ceed­ings, or

that forms part of prop­erty that has been ceded in a li­quid­a­tion set­tle­ment

or dam­ages, des­troys, re­duces the value of, or renders un­us­able such an as­set,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 170  

Ob­tain­ing a ju­di­cial com­pos­i­tion agree­ment by fraud

 

Any debt­or who mis­leads his cred­it­ors, the Com­mis­sion­er, or the debt col­lec­tion au­thor­it­ies, in par­tic­u­lar by false ac­count­ing or draw­ing up a false bal­ance sheet, in or­der to ob­tain a morator­i­um of debt en­force­ment or the ap­prov­al of a ju­di­cial com­pos­i­tion agree­ment,

any third party who acts in the fore­go­ing man­ner for the be­ne­fit of the debt­or,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Art. 171  

Ju­di­cial com­pos­i­tion agree­ment

 

1 Art­icles 163 para­graph 1, 164 para­graph 1, 165 para­graph 1, 166 and 167 also ap­ply in the event that a ju­di­cial com­pos­i­tion agree­ment has been ap­proved and ad­op­ted.

2225

225 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, with ef­fect from 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 171bis226  
 

226 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Sen­ten­cing Policy, with ef­fect from 1 Ju­ly 2023 (AS 2023 259; BBl 2018 2827).

Art. 172227  

4. Gen­er­al pro­vi­sions

 

227Re­pealed by No II 3 of the FA of 13 Dec. 2002, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2007 (AS 2006 34593535; BBl 1999 1979).

Art. 172bis228  
 

228 Re­pealed by No I 1 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ments to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).

Art. 172ter  

Minor of­fences against prop­erty

 

1 Where the of­fence relates only to a minor as­set value or where only a minor loss is in­curred, the of­fend­er shall be li­able on com­plaint to a fine.

2 This pro­vi­sion does not ap­ply to ag­grav­ated theft (Art. 139 nos 2229 and 3), rob­bery or ex­tor­tion.

229 This num­ber is now re­pealed.

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