Art­icles 264d–264j ap­ply in con­nec­tion with in­ter­na­tion­al armed con­flicts in­clud­ing oc­cu­pa­tions as well as, un­less the nature the of­fences re­quires oth­er­wise, in con­nec­tion with non-in­ter­na­tion­al armed con­flicts.

¹ The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than five years for any per­son who com­mits a ser­i­ous vi­ol­a­tion of the Geneva Con­ven­tions of 12 Au­gust 1949³⁵⁷ in con­nec­tion with an in­ter­na­tion­al armed con­flict by car­ry­ing out any of the fol­low­ing acts against per­sons or prop­erty pro­tec­ted un­der the Con­ven­tions:

a.

in­ten­tion­al hom­icide;

b.

host­age tak­ing;

c.

caus­ing severe pain or suf­fer­ing or ser­i­ous in­jury, wheth­er phys­ic­al or men­tal, in par­tic­u­lar by tor­ture, in­hu­man treat­ment or bio­lo­gic­al ex­per­i­ments;

d.

ex­tens­ive de­struc­tion and ap­pro­pri­ation of prop­erty not jus­ti­fied by mil­it­ary ne­ces­sity and car­ried out un­law­fully and wan­tonly;

e.

com­pel­ling a per­son to serve in the forces of a hos­tile power;

f.

un­law­ful de­port­a­tion or trans­fer or un­law­ful con­fine­ment;

g.

deny­ing the right to a fair and reg­u­lar tri­al be­fore the im­pos­i­tion or ex­e­cu­tion of a severe pen­alty.

² Acts in terms of para­graph 1 com­mit­ted in con­nec­tion with a non-in­ter­na­tion­al armed con­flict are equi­val­ent to ser­i­ous vi­ol­a­tions of in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law if they are dir­ec­ted against a per­son or prop­erty pro­tec­ted by in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law.

³ In es­pe­cially ser­i­ous cases, and in par­tic­u­lar where the of­fence af­fects a num­ber of per­sons or the of­fend­er acts in a cruel man­ner, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life may be im­posed.

⁴ In less ser­i­ous cases un­der para­graph 1 let­ters c–g, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year may be im­posed.

¹ The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than three years for any per­son who in con­nec­tion with an armed con­flict dir­ects an at­tack:

a.

against the ci­vil­ian pop­u­la­tion as such or against in­di­vidu­al ci­vil­ians not tak­ing dir­ect part in hos­til­it­ies;

b.

against per­son­nel, in­stall­a­tions, ma­ter­i­al or vehicles in­volved in a hu­man­it­ari­an as­sist­ance or peace­keep­ing mis­sion in ac­cord­ance with the Charter of the United Na­tions of 26 June 1945³⁵⁸, as long as they are en­titled to the pro­tec­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law;

c.

against ci­vil­ian ob­jects, un­defen­ded set­tle­ments or build­ings or de­mil­it­ar­ised zones that are not mil­it­ary ob­ject­ives;

d.

against med­ic­al units, ma­ter­i­al or vehicles us­ing a dis­tinct­ive em­blem un­der in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law or whose pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter is re­cog­nis­able even without a dis­tinct­ive em­blem, hos­pit­als and places where the sick and wounded are col­lec­ted;

e.

against cul­tur­al prop­erty or per­sons en­trus­ted with its pro­tec­tion or vehicles for its trans­port, against build­ings ded­ic­ated to re­li­gion, edu­ca­tion, art, sci­ence or char­it­able pur­poses, provided they are pro­tec­ted by in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law.

² In es­pe­cially ser­i­ous cases of at­tacks on per­sons, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life may be im­posed.

³ In less ser­i­ous cases, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year may be im­posed.

¹ The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than three years for any per­son who, in con­nec­tion with an armed con­flict:

a.

causes severe pain or suf­fer­ing or ser­i­ous in­jury or danger, wheth­er phys­ic­al or men­tal, to a per­son pro­tec­ted by in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law by sub­ject­ing that per­son to a med­ic­al pro­ced­ure that is not jus­ti­fied by the state of his or her health and which does com­ply with gen­er­ally re­cog­nised med­ic­al prin­ciples;

b.³⁵⁹

com­mits rape in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 190 para­graph 2 or 3 or an in­de­cent as­sault in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 189 para­graph 2 or 3 of com­par­able sever­ity on a per­son pro­tec­ted by in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law, ab­uses that per­son by com­mit­ting a sexu­al act of com­par­able sever­ity, or forces that per­son in­to pros­ti­tu­tion or to be ster­il­ised or, after she has been for­cibly made preg­nant, con­fines her un­law­fully with the in­tent of af­fect­ing the eth­nic com­pos­i­tion of a pop­u­la­tion;

c.

sub­jects a per­son pro­tec­ted by in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law to es­pe­cially hu­mi­li­at­ing and de­grad­ing treat­ment.

² In es­pe­cially ser­i­ous cases, and in par­tic­u­lar where the of­fence af­fects a num­ber of per­sons or the of­fend­er acts in a cruel man­ner, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life may be im­posed.

³ In less ser­i­ous cases, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year may be im­posed.

¹ The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than three years for any per­son who en­lists a child un­der the age of fif­teen in­to armed forces or groups or re­cruit­ing them for this pur­pose or us­ing them to par­ti­cip­ate in armed con­flicts.

² In es­pe­cially ser­i­ous cases, and in par­tic­u­lar where the of­fence af­fects a num­ber of chil­dren or the of­fend­er acts in a cruel man­ner, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life may be im­posed

³ In less ser­i­ous cases, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year may be im­posed.

¹ The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than three years for any per­son who, in con­nec­tion with an armed con­flict:

a.

launches an at­tack al­though he knows or must as­sume that such an at­tack will cause loss of life or in­jury to ci­vil­ians or dam­age to ci­vil­ian ob­jects or wide­spread, long-term and severe dam­age to the nat­ur­al en­vir­on­ment which would be clearly ex­cess­ive in re­la­tion to the con­crete and dir­ect over­all mil­it­ary ad­vant­age an­ti­cip­ated;

b.

uses a per­son pro­tec­ted by in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law as a hu­man shield in or­der to in­flu­ence mil­it­ary op­er­a­tions;

c.

as a meth­od of war­fare, pil­lages or oth­er­wise un­law­fully ap­pro­pri­ates prop­erty or des­troys or seizes en­emy prop­erty in a way not im­per­at­ively de­man­ded by the ne­ces­sit­ies of war, de­prives ci­vil­ians of ob­jects in­dis­pens­able to their sur­viv­al or im­pedes re­lief sup­plies;

d.

kills or wounds an en­emy com­batant treach­er­ously or after he or she has laid down his or her arms or no longer has a means of de­fence;

e.

mu­til­ates a dead en­emy com­batant;

f.

as the com­mand­er or­ders that no quarter be giv­en or threatens the en­emy that no quarter will be giv­en;

g.

makes im­prop­er use of a flag of truce, of the flag or of the mil­it­ary in­signia and uni­form of the en­emy or of the United Na­tions, or the dis­tinct­ive em­blems un­der in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law;

h.

as a mem­ber of an oc­cupy­ing power, trans­fers parts of its own ci­vil­ian pop­u­la­tion in­to the ter­rit­ory it is oc­cupy­ing or de­ports all or parts of the pop­u­la­tion of the oc­cu­pied ter­rit­ory with­in or out­side that ter­rit­ory.

² In es­pe­cially ser­i­ous cases, and in par­tic­u­lar where the of­fence af­fects a num­ber of per­sons or the of­fend­er acts in a cruel man­ner, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life may be im­posed.

³ In less ser­i­ous cases, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year may be im­posed.

¹ The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than three years for any per­son who, in con­nec­tion with an armed con­flict:

a.

em­ploys pois­on or poisoned weapons;

b.

em­ploys bio­lo­gic­al or chem­ic­al weapons, in­clud­ing pois­on­ous or as­phyxi­at­ing gases, sub­stances and li­quids;

c.

em­ploys bul­lets which ex­pand or flat­ten eas­ily or ex­plode in the hu­man body;

d.

em­ploys weapons primar­ily de­signed to cause in­jury through splin­ters that can­not be de­tec­ted by x-ray equip­ment;

e.

em­ploys laser weapons primar­ily de­signed to cause per­man­ent blind­ness.

² In es­pe­cially ser­i­ous cases, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of life may be im­posed

The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty for any per­son who:

a.

con­tin­ues mil­it­ary op­er­a­tions after re­ceiv­ing of­fi­cial no­ti­fic­a­tion of an agree­ment on a cease­fire or a peace agree­ment, or vi­ol­ates the con­di­tions of the cease­fire in some oth­er way;

b.

ab­uses, in­sults or without reas­on ob­structs an op­pos­ing peace ne­go­ti­at­or or any of his party;

c.

without jus­ti­fic­a­tion delays the re­pat­ri­ation of pris­on­ers of war after con­clu­sion of mil­it­ary op­er­a­tions.

The pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty for any per­son who in con­nec­tion with an armed con­flict vi­ol­ates a pro­vi­sion of in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law oth­er than those men­tioned in Art­icles 264c–264i, where such a vi­ol­a­tion is de­clared to be an of­fence un­der cus­tom­ary in­ter­na­tion­al law or an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty re­cog­nised as bind­ing by Switzer­land.

¹ A su­per­i­or who is aware that a sub­or­din­ate is car­ry­ing out or will carry out an act un­der the Title Twelve^bis or Title Twelve^ter and who fails to take ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures to pre­vent the act shall be li­able to the same pen­alty as the per­pet­rat­or of the act. If the su­per­i­or fails to pre­vent the act through neg­li­gence, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.

² A su­per­i­or who is aware that a sub­or­din­ate has car­ried out an act un­der Title Twelve^bis or Title Twelve^ter and who fails to take ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures to en­sure the pro­sec­u­tion of the per­pet­rat­or of the act shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

A sub­or­din­ate who, on or­ders from a su­per­i­or or on or­ders of equi­val­ent bind­ing ef­fect, car­ries out an act un­der Title Twelve^bis or Title Twelve^ter is guilty of an of­fence if he was aware at the time that the act is an of­fence.

¹ A per­son who car­ries out an act un­der Title Twelve^bis, Title Twelve^ter or Art­icle 264k while abroad is guilty of an of­fence if he is in Switzer­land and is not ex­tra­dited to an­oth­er State or de­livered to an in­ter­na­tion­al crim­in­al court whose jur­is­dic­tion is re­cog­nised by Switzer­land.

² Where the vic­tim of the act car­ried out abroad is not Swiss and the per­pet­rat­or is not Swiss, the pro­sec­u­tion, with the ex­cep­tion of meas­ures to se­cure evid­ence, may be aban­doned or may be dis­pensed with provided:

a.

a for­eign au­thor­ity or an in­ter­na­tion­al crim­in­al court whose jur­is­dic­tion is re­cog­nised by Switzer­land is pro­sec­ut­ing the of­fence and the sus­pec­ted per­pet­rat­or is ex­tra­dited or de­livered to the court; or

b.

the sus­pec­ted per­pet­rat­or is no longer in Switzer­land and is not ex­pec­ted to re­turn there.

³ Art­icle 7 para­graphs 4 and 5 ap­plies un­less the ac­quit­tal, or the re­mis­sion or ap­plic­a­tion of time lim­its for the ex­e­cu­tion of the sen­tence abroad has the aim of pro­tect­ing the of­fend­er from pun­ish­ment without jus­ti­fic­a­tion.

The pro­sec­u­tion of­fences un­der Title Twelve^bis, Title Twelve^ter and un­der Art­icle 264k does not re­quire au­thor­isa­tion in ac­cord­ance with any of the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions:

a.

Art­icle 7 para­graph 2 let­ter b of the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code³⁶¹;

b.

Art­icle 14 and 15 of the Gov­ern­ment Li­ab­il­ity Act of 14 March 1958³⁶²;

c.

Art­icle 17 of the Par­lia­ment Act of 13 Decem­ber 2002³⁶³;

d.

Art­icle 61a of the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997³⁶⁴;

e.

Art­icle 11 of the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005³⁶⁵;

f.

Art­icle 12 of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court Act of 17 June 2005³⁶⁶;

g.

Art­icle 16 of the Pat­ent Court Act of 20. March 2009³⁶⁷;

h.

Art­icle 50 of the Crim­in­al Justice Au­thor­it­ies Act of 19 March 2010³⁶⁸.

Any per­son who car­ries out an act with the aim, through the use of vi­ol­ence,

of chan­ging the con­sti­tu­tion of the Con­fed­er­a­tion³⁶⁹ or of a can­ton³⁷⁰,

of de­pos­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­ally ap­poin­ted state au­thor­it­ies or ren­der­ing them un­able to ex­er­cise their powers, or

of sever­ing an area of Swiss ter­rit­ory from the Con­fed­er­a­tion or a part of can­ton­al ter­rit­ory from a can­ton,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year³⁷¹.

1. Any per­son who a car­ries out an act with the aim of

vi­ol­at­ing or en­dan­ger­ing the in­de­pend­ence of the Con­fed­er­a­tion or

en­dan­ger­ing the in­de­pend­ence of the Con­fed­er­a­tion by bring­ing about the in­ter­fer­ence of a for­eign power in fed­er­al af­fairs,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year.

2. Any per­son who enters in­to a re­la­tion­ship with the gov­ern­ment of a for­eign state or its agents with the aim of bring­ing about a war against the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than three years.

In ser­i­ous cases a life sen­tence may be im­posed.³⁷²

¹ Any per­son who with a view to bring­ing about or sup­port­ing for­eign op­er­a­tions or activ­it­ies dir­ec­ted against the se­cur­ity of Switzer­land, con­tacts a for­eign state, for­eign parties, or oth­er for­eign or­gan­isa­tions or their agents, or is­sues or dis­sem­in­ates false or dis­tor­ted in­form­a­tion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² In ser­i­ous cases, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year shall be im­posed.³⁷⁴

1. Any per­son who wil­fully makes known or makes ac­cess­ible to a for­eign state or its agents or to the gen­er­al pub­lic a secret, the pre­ser­va­tion of which is ne­ces­sary in the in­terests of the Con­fed­er­a­tion,³⁷⁵

any per­son who fals­i­fies, des­troys, dis­poses of or steals doc­u­ments or evid­ence re­lat­ing to leg­al re­la­tions between the Con­fed­er­a­tion or a can­ton and a for­eign state and thus en­dangers the in­terests of the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­ton, or

any per­son who, as the au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, con­ducts ne­go­ti­ations with a for­eign gov­ern­ment which are in­ten­ded to be det­ri­ment­al to the Con­fed­er­a­tion,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year.

2. Any per­son who wil­fully makes known or makes ac­cess­ible to the gen­er­al pub­lic a secret, the pre­ser­va­tion of which is ne­ces­sary in the in­terests of the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.³⁷⁶

3. If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.³⁷⁷

Any per­son who re­moves, moves, renders un­re­cog­nis­able, falsely po­s­i­tions or fals­i­fies a bound­ary stone or oth­er bound­ary mark­er which serves to in­dic­ate a na­tion­al, can­ton­al or com­mun­al bound­ary shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son for­cibly enters Swiss ter­rit­ory in vi­ol­a­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al law shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who ma­li­ciously re­moves, dam­ages or acts in an in­sult­ing man­ner to­wards a Swiss na­tion­al em­blem which is dis­played by a pub­lic au­thor­ity, and in par­tic­u­lar the coat of arms or the flag of the Con­fed­er­a­tion or a can­ton shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who car­ries out activ­it­ies on be­half of a for­eign state on Swiss ter­rit­ory without law­ful au­thor­ity, where such activ­it­ies are the re­spons­ib­il­ity of a pub­lic au­thor­ity or pub­lic of­fi­cial,

any per­son who car­ries out such activ­it­ies for a for­eign party or or­gan­isa­tion,

any per­son who fa­cil­it­ates such activ­it­ies,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty, or in ser­i­ous cases to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year.³⁷⁹

2. Any per­son who ab­ducts an­oth­er by us­ing vi­ol­ence, false pre­tences or threats and takes him abroad in or­der to hand him over to a for­eign au­thor­ity, party or oth­er or­gan­isa­tion or to ex­pose him to a danger to life or limb shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year.

3. Any per­son who makes pre­par­a­tions for such an ab­duc­tion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who provides polit­ic­al in­tel­li­gence-gath­er­ing ser­vices or or­gan­ises such ser­vices in the in­terest of a for­eign state, a for­eign party or any oth­er for­eign or­gan­isa­tion, to the det­ri­ment of Switzer­land or its cit­izens, in­hab­it­ants or or­gan­isa­tions,

any per­son who re­cruits oth­ers for or fa­cil­it­ates such ser­vices,

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

2. In ser­i­ous cases, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year. A ser­i­ous case is con­sti­tuted, in par­tic­u­lar, where the of­fend­er in­cites activ­it­ies or makes false re­ports such that the in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity of the Con­fed­er­a­tion is threatened.

Any per­son who seeks to ob­tain a man­u­fac­tur­ing or trade secret in or­der to make it avail­able to an ex­tern­al of­fi­cial agency, a for­eign or­gan­isa­tion, a private en­ter­prise, or the agents of any of these, or,

any per­son who makes a man­u­fac­tur­ing or trade secret avail­able to an for­eign of­fi­cial agency, a for­eign or­gan­isa­tion, a private en­ter­prise, or the agents of any of these,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty, or in ser­i­ous cases to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year.³⁸¹

1. Any per­son who con­ducts or or­gan­ises mil­it­ary in­tel­li­gence-gath­er­ing ser­vices on be­half of a for­eign state and to the det­ri­ment of Switzer­land,

any per­son who re­cruits oth­ers to con­duct or fa­cil­it­ates such ser­vices,

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

In ser­i­ous cases, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year shall be im­posed.³⁸³

2. Any cor­res­pond­ence and ma­ter­i­als shall be con­fis­cated.

Any per­son who car­ries out an act which is in­ten­ded to dis­rupt or al­ter the con­sti­tu­tion­al or­der of the Con­fed­er­a­tion³⁸⁵ or the can­tons³⁸⁶ in an un­law­ful man­ner shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who pub­licly in­cites oth­ers to dis­obey mil­it­ary or­ders, to vi­ol­ate mil­it­ary du­ties, to re­fuse to per­form mil­it­ary ser­vice or to desert, and

any per­son who in­duces a per­son ob­liged to per­form mil­it­ary ser­vice to carry out such an act,

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

2. Where the in­cite­ment or in­duce­ment relates to mutiny or the pre­par­a­tion for mutiny, a cus­todi­al sen­tence or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.

1. Any per­son who wil­fully forges, fals­i­fies, sup­presses or re­moves a call-up or­der, mo­bil­isa­tion or­der or march­ing or­der, or in­struc­tions in­ten­ded for those ob­liged to per­form mil­it­ary ser­vice, and

any per­son who makes use of such a forged or fals­i­fied or­der or in­struc­tion,

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

2. If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.

Any per­son who pre­vents a mem­ber of the armed forces from car­ry­ing out his mil­it­ary ser­vice or ob­structs him in the course of his ser­vice shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.³⁸⁹

Any per­son who by the use of vi­ol­ence or the threat of ser­i­ously det­ri­ment­al con­sequences ob­structs or dis­rupts a meet­ing, elec­tion or vote or­gan­ised un­der the terms of the con­sti­tu­tion or the law, and any per­son who by the use of vi­ol­ence or the threat of ser­i­ously det­ri­ment­al con­sequences ob­structs or dis­rupts the col­lec­tion of sig­na­tures for or the hand­ing-over of a pe­ti­tion re­quest­ing a ref­er­en­dum or ini­ti­at­ive,

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

Any per­son who by the use of vi­ol­ence or the threat of ser­i­ously det­ri­ment­al con­sequences pre­vents a voter from ex­er­cising his right to vote or to sign a pe­ti­tion re­quest­ing a ref­er­en­dum or ini­ti­at­ive, and

any per­son who by the use of vi­ol­ence or the threat of ser­i­ously det­ri­ment­al con­sequences co­erces a voter in­to ex­er­cising his vot­ing rights or in­to vot­ing in a par­tic­u­lar way,

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

Any per­son who of­fers, prom­ises, or gives a voter or ar­ranges for a voter to be giv­en a gift or oth­er ad­vant­age in re­turn for vot­ing in a par­tic­u­lar way, or in re­turn for sign­ing or re­fus­ing to sign a re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum or an ini­ti­at­ive,

any per­son who of­fers, prom­ises, or gives a voter or ar­ranges for a voter to be giv­en a gift or oth­er ad­vant­age in re­turn for not par­ti­cip­at­ing in an elec­tion or vote, and

any per­son who as a voter se­cures the prom­ise of or ar­ranges for him­self to be giv­en such an ad­vant­age,

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

1. Any per­son who forges, fals­i­fies, re­moves or des­troys an elect­or­al re­gister,

any per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in an elec­tion or a vote, or signs a re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum or an ini­ti­at­ive without au­thor­ity, and

any per­son who fals­i­fies the res­ults of an elec­tion or vote or a pe­ti­tion re­quest­ing a ref­er­en­dum or ini­ti­at­ive, in par­tic­u­lar by adding, al­ter­ing, omit­ting, de­let­ing bal­lot pa­pers or sig­na­tures, count­ing them in­cor­rectly or in­cor­rectly cer­ti­fy­ing the res­ult,

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

2. If the of­fend­er acts in of­fi­cial ca­pa­city, a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from one month to three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty of not less than 30 daily pen­alty units shall be im­posed.³⁹⁰

Any per­son who sys­tem­at­ic­ally col­lects, com­pletes or al­ters bal­lot pa­pers, or dis­trib­utes bal­lot pa­pers which have been com­pleted or altered in this way shall be li­able to a fine.

Any per­son who ob­tains know­ledge by un­law­ful means of how in­di­vidu­als have voted shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who by the use of vi­ol­ence or threats pre­vents an au­thor­ity, one of its mem­bers or a pub­lic of­fi­cial from car­ry­ing out an of­fi­cial act, or co­erces them to carry out such an act, or at­tacks them while they are car­ry­ing out such an act shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years. In minor cases, a mon­et­ary pen­alty may be im­posed.³⁹³

Pub­lic of­fi­cials also in­clude em­ploy­ees of un­der­tak­ings in terms of the Rail­ways Act of 20 Decem­ber 1957³⁹⁴, the Pas­sen­ger Trans­port Act of 20 March 2009³⁹⁵ and the Goods Trans­port Act of 19 Decem­ber 2008³⁹⁶, as well as em­ploy­ees of or­gan­isa­tions op­er­at­ing with a li­cence from the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Trans­port un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 18 June 2010³⁹⁷ on the Se­cur­ity Units of Pub­lic Trans­port Com­pan­ies.³⁹⁸

2. If the of­fence is com­mit­ted by a mob, any per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in the mob shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years. In minor cases, a mon­et­ary pen­alty may be im­posed.

Any par­ti­cipant who uses vi­ol­ence against per­sons or prop­erty shall be li­able to cus­todi­al sen­tence of from one month to three years

Any par­ti­cipant who uses vi­ol­ence against prop­erty shall be li­able to cus­todi­al sen­tence of from one month to three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty of not less than 90 daily pen­alty units.³⁹⁹

Any per­son who pre­vents a pub­lic au­thor­ity, one of its mem­bers or a pub­lic of­fi­cial from car­ry­ing out an act which is one of their of­fi­cial du­ties shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 30 daily pen­alty units.

Pub­lic of­fi­cials also in­clude em­ploy­ees of un­der­tak­ings in terms of the Rail­ways Act of 20 Decem­ber 1957⁴⁰¹, the Pas­sen­ger Trans­port Act of 20 March 2009⁴⁰² and the Goods Trans­port Act of 19 Decem­ber 2008⁴⁰³, as well as em­ploy­ees of or­gan­isa­tions op­er­at­ing with a li­cence from the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Trans­port un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 18 June 2010⁴⁰⁴ on the Se­cur­ity Units of Pub­lic Trans­port Com­pan­ies.⁴⁰⁵

Any per­son who with un­law­ful in­ten­tion usurps the ex­er­cise of an of­fi­cial func­tion or mil­it­ary com­mand shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who re­moves from of­fi­cial con­trol an item of prop­erty which has been of­fi­cially seized shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who breaks open, re­moves or renders in­ef­fect­ive an of­fi­cial mark and in par­tic­u­lar an of­fi­cial seal which is used to close or identi­fy an ob­ject shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

¹ Any per­son who breaches an or­der is­sued by a com­pet­ent au­thor­ity to ex­pel him from the ter­rit­ory of the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion or a can­ton shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The dur­a­tion the sen­tence is not taken in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the length of the peri­od of ex­pul­sion.

Any per­son who fails to com­ply with an of­fi­cial or­der that has been is­sued to him by a com­pet­ent au­thor­ity or pub­lic of­fi­cial un­der the threat of the crim­in­al pen­alty for non-com­pli­ance in terms of this Art­icle shall be li­able to a fine.

¹ Any per­son who pub­lishes in­form­a­tion from the files, pro­ceed­ings or of­fi­cial in­vest­ig­a­tions of a pub­lic au­thor­ity which have been de­clared secret by that au­thor­ity by law or by a law­ful or­der is­sued by the au­thor­ity shall be li­able to a fine.⁴⁰⁷

² Com­pli­city is also a crim­in­al of­fence.

³ The act does not carry a pen­alty un­less pub­lic­a­tion is con­trary to an over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terest.⁴⁰⁸

¹ Any per­son who car­ries on an activ­ity that he is pro­hib­ited from car­ry­ing on by a pro­hib­i­tion or­der un­der Art­icle 67 here­of, Art­icle 50 of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 June 1927⁴¹⁰ (MCC) or Art­icle 16a JCLA⁴¹¹ shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² Any per­son who con­tacts or ap­proaches one or more spe­cif­ic per­sons or per­sons in a spe­cif­ic group or is present in a spe­cif­ic loc­a­tion when he is pro­hib­ited from do­ing so by a con­tact pro­hib­i­tion and ex­clu­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 67b here­of, Art­icle 50b MCC or Art­icle 16a JCLA shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who fails to com­ply with pro­ba­tion as­sist­ance ordered by the court or the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity or with in­struc­tions is­sued by the court or the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity shall be li­able to a fine.

Any per­son who pub­licly in­sults a for­eign state in the per­son of its head of state, the mem­bers of its gov­ern­ment, its dip­lo­mat­ic rep­res­ent­at­ives, its of­fi­cial del­eg­ates to a dip­lo­mat­ic con­fer­ence tak­ing place in Switzer­land, or one of its of­fi­cial rep­res­ent­at­ives to an in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tion or de­part­ment there­of based or sit­ting in Switzer­land shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who pub­licly in­sults an in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tion or de­part­ment there­of based or sit­ting in Switzer­land in the per­son of one of its of­fi­cial rep­res­ent­at­ives shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who wil­fully re­moves, dam­ages or con­ducts him­self in an in­sult­ing man­ner to­wards a na­tion­al em­blem of a for­eign state, and in par­tic­u­lar its coat of arms or flag which is pub­licly dis­played by one of its of­fi­cial rep­res­ent­at­ives shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who vi­ol­ates the ter­rit­ori­al sov­er­eignty of a for­eign state, in par­tic­u­lar by con­duct­ing of­fi­cial activ­it­ies without au­thor­isa­tion on for­eign ter­rit­ory,

any per­son who enters for­eign ter­rit­ory in breach of in­ter­na­tion­al law,

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

2. Any per­son who at­tempts from with­in Swiss ter­rit­ory to dis­rupt the polit­ic­al or­der of a for­eign state through the use of force shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who from neut­ral Swiss ter­rit­ory acts in a hos­tile man­ner to­wards or sup­ports hos­tile acts against a coun­try at war,

any per­son who acts in a hos­tile man­ner to­wards for­eign troops who have been ad­mit­ted to Switzer­land,

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who con­ducts or or­gan­ises the con­duct of mil­it­ary in­tel­li­gence gath­er­ing ser­vices on Swiss ter­rit­ory for a for­eign state against an­oth­er for­eign state, and

any per­son who re­cruits per­sons for or fa­cil­it­ates such ser­vices,

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

2. Any cor­res­pond­ence and oth­er ma­ter­i­als shall be for­feited.

¹ Felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours un­der this Title are only pro­sec­uted on the au­thor­ity of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall or­der a pro­sec­u­tion only if a re­quest to do so is re­ceived from the gov­ern­ment of the for­eign state in the case of Art­icle 296 or from a gov­ern­ing of­ficer of the in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tion in the case of Art­icle 297. In times of act­ive ser­vice, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may also or­der a pro­sec­u­tion in the ab­sence of a re­quest.

³ In the case of Art­icles 296 and 297, the right to pro­sec­ute is sub­ject to a lim­it­a­tion peri­od of two years.⁴¹⁶

1. Any per­son who makes an ac­cus­a­tion to the au­thor­it­ies that a per­son whom he knows to be in­no­cent has com­mit­ted a felony or a mis­de­mean­our, with the in­ten­tion of caus­ing a crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion to be brought against that per­son,

any per­son who oth­er­wise car­ries out ma­li­cious acts with the in­ten­tion of caus­ing a crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion to be brought against a per­son whom he knows to be in­no­cent,

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

2. If the false ac­cus­a­tion relates to a con­tra­ven­tion, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.

1. Any per­son who re­ports the com­mis­sion of a crim­in­al of­fence to the ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies which he knows has not been com­mit­ted,

any per­son who falsely re­ports to the ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies that he has him­self com­mit­ted an of­fence,

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

2. …⁴¹⁸

¹ Any per­son who as­sists an­oth­er to evade pro­sec­u­tion, the ex­e­cu­tion of a sen­tence, or the ex­e­cu­tion of any of the meas­ures provided for in Art­icles 59–61, 63 and 64⁴¹⁹ shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

^1bis Any per­son who as­sists a per­son who is be­ing pro­sec­uted or has been con­victed out­side Switzer­land in re­spect of a felony in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 101 to evade pro­sec­u­tion or the ex­e­cu­tion of a cus­todi­al sen­tence or a meas­ure with­in the mean­ing of Art­icles 59–61, 63 or 64 in that place shall be li­able to the same pen­al­ties as in para­graph 1.⁴²⁰

² If the per­son as­sists a re­l­at­ive or an­oth­er per­son to whom he is so closely re­lated that his con­duct is ex­cus­able, he shall not be li­able to any pen­alty.⁴²¹

1. Any per­son who car­ries out an act that is aimed at frus­trat­ing the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the ori­gin, the tra­cing or the for­feit­ure of as­sets which he knows or must as­sume ori­gin­ate from a felony or ag­grav­ated tax mis­de­mean­our shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴²³

1^bis. An ag­grav­ated tax mis­de­mean­our is any of the of­fences set out in Art­icle 186 of the Fed­er­al Act of 14 Decem­ber 1990⁴²⁴ on Dir­ect Fed­er­al Tax­a­tion and Art­icle 59 para­graph 1 clause one of the Fed­er­al Act of 14 Decem­ber 1990⁴²⁵ on the Har­mon­isa­tion of Dir­ect Fed­er­al Tax­a­tion at Can­ton­al and Com­mun­al Levels, if the tax evaded in any tax peri­od ex­ceeds 300 000 francs.⁴²⁶

2. In ser­i­ous cases, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴²⁷

A ser­i­ous case is con­sti­tuted, in par­tic­u­lar, where the of­fend­er:

a.⁴²⁸

acts as a mem­ber of a crim­in­al or ter­ror­ist or­gan­isa­tion;

b.

acts as a mem­ber of a group that has been formed for the pur­pose of the con­tin­ued con­duct of money laun­der­ing activ­it­ies; or

c.

achieves a large turnover or sub­stan­tial profit through com­mer­cial money laun­der­ing.

3. The of­fend­er is also li­able to the fore­go­ing pen­al­ties where the main of­fence was com­mit­ted abroad, provided such an of­fence is also li­able to pro­sec­u­tion at the place of com­mis­sion.⁴²⁹

¹ Any per­son who as part of his pro­fes­sion ac­cepts, holds on de­pos­it, or as­sists in in­vest­ing or trans­fer­ring out­side as­sets and fails to as­cer­tain the iden­tity of the be­ne­fi­cial own­er of the as­sets with the care that is re­quired in the cir­cum­stances shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴³²

² The per­sons in­cluded in para­graph 1 above are en­titled to re­port to the Money Laun­der­ing Re­port­ing Of­fice in the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice any ob­ser­va­tions that in­dic­ate that as­sets ori­gin­ate from a felony or an ag­grav­ated tax mis­de­mean­our in terms of Art­icle 305^bis num­ber 1^bis.⁴³³

¹ Any per­son who is a party to civil pro­ceed­ings and, fol­low­ing an ex­press cau­tion by the judge that he must tell the truth and no­ti­fic­a­tion of the pen­al­ties for fail­ure to do so, gives false evid­ence in re­la­tion to the case shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² …⁴³⁴

³ If the false state­ment relates to mat­ters that are ir­rel­ev­ant to the ju­di­cial de­cision, the pen­alty is a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴³⁵

¹ Any per­son who ap­pears in ju­di­cial pro­ceed­ings as a wit­ness, ex­pert wit­ness, trans­lat­or or in­ter­pret­er and gives false evid­ence or provides a false re­port, a false ex­pert opin­ion or a false trans­la­tion in re­la­tion to the case shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² …⁴³⁶

³ If the false state­ment relates to mat­ters that are ir­rel­ev­ant to the court’s de­cision, a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.⁴³⁷

¹ If the of­fend­er makes his false ac­cus­a­tion (Art. 303), false re­port of an of­fence (Art. 304) or a false state­ment (Art. 306 and 307) of his own ac­cord and be­fore it has caused any leg­al det­ri­ment to oth­ers, the court may re­duce the sen­tence (Art. 48a) or waive a pen­alty.

² The of­fend­er shall not be li­able to a pen­alty if he has made a false state­ment (Art. 306 and 307) be­cause:

a.

by testi­fy­ing truth­fully, he would risk pro­sec­u­tion; or

b.

by testi­fy­ing truth­fully, a re­l­at­ive or an­oth­er per­son to whom he is so closely re­lated that his con­duct is ex­cus­able would risk pro­sec­u­tion.

Art­icles 306–308 also ap­ply to:

a.

the ad­min­is­trat­ive court pro­ceed­ings, ar­bit­ra­tion pro­ceed­ings and pro­ceed­ings be­fore pub­lic au­thor­it­ies and pub­lic of­fi­cials who are en­titled to ex­am­ine wit­nesses;

b.

pro­ceed­ings be­fore in­ter­na­tion­al courts where Switzer­land re­cog­nises their man­dat­ory jur­is­dic­tion.

1. Any per­son who by us­ing force, threats or false pre­tences, frees or as­sists in the es­cape of a per­son un­der ar­rest, a con­victed pris­on­er or a per­son com­mit­ted to an in­sti­tu­tion by of­fi­cial or­der shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. If the act is com­mit­ted by a mob, any per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in the mob shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any par­ti­cipants who com­mit acts of vi­ol­ence against per­sons or prop­erty shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from three months to three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty of not less than 90 daily pen­alty units.⁴⁴⁰

1. Con­victed pris­on­ers or oth­er per­sons who have been com­mit­ted to an in­sti­tu­tion by of­fi­cial or­der who form a ri­ot­ous as­sembly with the com­mon in­tent

to at­tack the of­ficers of the in­sti­tu­tion or oth­er per­sons en­trus­ted with their su­per­vi­sion,

to co­erce these per­sons by force or the threat of force to carry out acts or ab­stain from car­ry­ing out acts, or

to break out of the in­sti­tu­tion by us­ing force,

are li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from one month to three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty of not less than 30 daily pen­alty units.⁴⁴¹

2. Any par­ti­cipant who com­mits acts of vi­ol­ence against per­sons or prop­erty shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of from three months to five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty of not less than 90 daily pen­alty units.⁴⁴²

Any mem­ber of an au­thor­ity or a pub­lic of­fi­cial who ab­uses his of­fi­cial powers in or­der to se­cure an un­law­ful ad­vant­age for him­self or an­oth­er or to cause pre­ju­dice to an­oth­er shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any pub­lic of­fi­cial who with a view to his own or an­oth­er's gain levies taxes, fees or oth­er charges which are not due or which ex­ceed the stat­utory rates shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any mem­ber of an au­thor­ity or pub­lic of­fi­cial who, in the course of a leg­al trans­ac­tion and with a view to ob­tain­ing an un­law­ful ad­vant­age for him­self or an­oth­er, dam­ages the pub­lic in­terests that he has a duty to safe­guard shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any pub­lic of­fi­cial or per­son act­ing in an of­fi­cial ca­pa­city who wil­fully forges or fals­i­fies a doc­u­ment or uses the genu­ine sig­na­ture or hand­writ­ing of an­oth­er to pro­duce a false doc­u­ment,

any pub­lic of­fi­cial or per­son act­ing in an of­fi­cial ca­pa­city who wil­fully falsely cer­ti­fies a fact of leg­al sig­ni­fic­ance, and in par­tic­u­lar falsely cer­ti­fies the au­then­ti­city of a sig­na­ture or hand­writ­ing or the ac­cur­acy of a copy,

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

2. If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, a mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.⁴⁴⁷

¹ Any per­son who, as part of a cov­ert in­vest­ig­a­tion, pro­duces, amends or uses doc­u­ments with the ap­prov­al of a court in or­der to con­struct or main­tain his cov­er story or pro­duces, amends or uses doc­u­ments with the au­thor­isa­tion of the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice (FIS) un­der Art­icle 17 In­telSA⁴⁴⁹ or the au­thor­isa­tion of the Head of the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of De­fence, Civil Pro­tec­tion and Sport (DDPS) in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18 In­telSA in or­der to cre­ate or main­tain his cov­er story or as­sumed iden­tity does not com­mit an of­fence un­der Art­icles 251, 252, 255 and 317.⁴⁵⁰

² Any per­son who, with au­thor­isa­tion for a cov­ert in­vest­ig­a­tion or as in­struc­ted by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity un­der Art­icle 17 or 18 In­telSA, pro­duces or amends of­fi­cial doc­u­ments for the pur­poses of cov­er stor­ies or as­sumed iden­tit­ies does not com­mit an of­fence un­der Art­icles 251, 252, 255 and 317.⁴⁵¹

³ Any per­son who pro­duces, amends or uses of­fi­cial doc­u­ments un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 23 Decem­ber 2011⁴⁵² on Ex­tra-Pro­ced­ur­al Wit­ness Pro­tec­tion does not com­mit an of­fence un­der Art­icles 251, 252, 255 and 317.⁴⁵³

1. Any doc­tor, dent­ist, veter­in­ary sur­geon or mid­wife who wil­fully is­sues a cer­ti­fic­ate, the con­tent of which is un­true, for the pur­pose of be­ing pro­duced to the au­thor­it­ies or to ob­tain an un­law­ful ad­vant­age, or which may pre­ju­dice the sub­stan­tial and law­ful in­terests of third parties shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

If the of­fend­er has re­ques­ted, ac­cep­ted or se­cured the prom­ise of re­com­pense, a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or to mon­et­ary pen­alty shall be im­posed.⁴⁵⁴

2. …⁴⁵⁵

Any pub­lic of­fi­cial who as­sists or al­lows a per­son un­der ar­rest, a con­victed pris­on­er or a per­son com­mit­ted to an in­sti­tu­tion by of­fi­cial or­der to es­cape shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who dis­closes secret in­form­a­tion that has been con­fided to him in his ca­pa­city as a mem­ber of an au­thor­ity or as a pub­lic of­fi­cial or which has come to his know­ledge in the ex­e­cu­tion of his of­fi­cial du­ties or as an aux­il­i­ary to a pub­lic of­fi­cial or an au­thor­ity shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

A breach of of­fi­cial secrecy re­mains an of­fence fol­low­ing ter­min­a­tion of em­ploy­ment as a mem­ber of an au­thor­ity or as a pub­lic of­fi­cial or of the aux­il­i­ary activ­ity.

2. The of­fend­er is not li­able to any pen­alty if he has dis­closed the secret in­form­a­tion with the writ­ten con­sent of his su­per­i­or au­thor­ity.

1. Any per­son who in his ca­pa­city as a mem­ber of the clergy, law­yer, de­fence law­yer, not­ary, pat­ent at­tor­ney, aud­it­or sub­ject to a duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity un­der the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions (CO)⁴⁵⁷, doc­tor, dent­ist, chiro­pract­or, phar­macist, mid­wife, psy­cho­lo­gist, nurse, physio­ther­ap­ist, oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­ap­ist, di­eti­cian, op­to­met­rist, os­teo­path or as an as­sist­ant to any of the fore­go­ing per­sons dis­closes con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion that has been con­fided to him in his pro­fes­sion­al ca­pa­city or which has come to his know­ledge in the prac­tice of his pro­fes­sion shall be li­able on com­plaint to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴⁵⁸

A stu­dent who dis­closes con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion that has come to his know­ledge in the course of his stud­ies is also li­able to the fore­go­ing pen­al­ties.

A breach of pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity re­mains an of­fence fol­low­ing the ter­min­a­tion of pro­fes­sion­al em­ploy­ment or of the stud­ies.

2. The per­son dis­clos­ing the in­form­a­tion is not li­able to any pen­alty if he does so with the con­sent of the per­son to whom the in­form­a­tion per­tains or on the basis of writ­ten au­thor­isa­tion is­sued in re­sponse to his ap­plic­a­tion by a su­per­i­or au­thor­ity or su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

3. The fed­er­al and can­ton­al pro­vi­sions on the du­ties to re­port and co­oper­ate, the duty to testi­fy and on the ob­lig­a­tion to provide in­form­a­tion to an au­thor­ity are re­served.⁴⁵⁹

¹ Any per­son who dis­closes without au­thor­isa­tion a pro­fes­sion­al secret that has come to his know­ledge in the course of his re­search activ­it­ies in­volving hu­man be­ings in ac­cord­ance with the Hu­man Re­search Act of 30 Septem­ber 2011⁴⁶¹ shall be li­able to a pen­alty in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 321.

² Pro­fes­sion­al secrets may be dis­closed for the pur­pose of re­search in­to hu­man dis­eases and con­cern­ing the struc­ture and func­tion of the hu­man body if the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 34 of the Hu­man Re­search Act of 30 Septem­ber 2011 are met and au­thor­isa­tion for dis­clos­ure has been ob­tained from the re­spons­ible eth­ics com­mit­tee.

¹ Any per­son who in his ca­pa­city as a pub­lic of­fi­cial, em­ploy­ee or aux­il­i­ary of an or­gan­isa­tion provid­ing postal or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vices re­veals to a third party de­tails of cus­tom­ers' post, pay­ments or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions, opens sealed mail or tries to find out its con­tent, or al­lows a third party the op­por­tun­ity to carry out such an act shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The fore­go­ing pen­al­ties also ap­ply to any per­son who by de­cep­tion causes a per­son bound by a duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in terms of para­graph 1 to breach his ob­lig­a­tion of secrecy.

³ A breach of postal or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions secrecy re­mains an of­fence even after ter­min­a­tion of em­ploy­ment as a pub­lic of­fi­cial, em­ploy­ee or aux­il­i­ary of an or­gan­isa­tion provid­ing postal or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tion ser­vices.

⁴ A breach of postal or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions secrecy does not carry a pen­alty if it is car­ried out in or­der to de­term­ine the iden­tity of the en­titled per­son.⁴⁶³

⁵ Art­icle 179^octies is re­served, to­geth­er with the fed­er­al and can­ton­al pro­vi­sions on the ob­lig­a­tions to give evid­ence or provide in­form­a­tion to a pub­lic au­thor­ity.

¹ Me­dia or­gan­isa­tions are ob­liged, at the re­quest of any per­son, to re­veal im­me­di­ately and in writ­ing their place of busi­ness and the iden­tity of those re­spons­ible for their pub­lic­a­tions (Art. 28 para. 2 and 3).⁴⁶⁵

² News­pa­pers, magazines or peri­od­ic­als must in­dic­ate in an im­print the place of busi­ness of their me­dia or­gan­isa­tion, sig­ni­fic­ant hold­ings in oth­er or­gan­isa­tions and the ed­it­or re­spons­ible. If the ed­it­or is re­spons­ible only for part of the news­pa­per, magazine or peri­od­ic­al, it must be in­dic­ated that he is the ed­it­or re­spons­ible for that part. De­tails of the ed­it­ors re­spons­ible must be giv­en for each part of the news­pa­per, magazine or peri­od­ic­al.

³ In the event of any vi­ol­a­tion of the pro­vi­sions of this Art­icle, the man­ager of the me­dia or­gan­isa­tion shall be li­able to a fine. If the per­son in­dic­ated as ed­it­or (Art. 28 para. 2 and 3) does not in fact hold such a po­s­i­tion, this also con­sti­tutes an of­fence.⁴⁶⁶

¹ Any per­son who, as the per­son re­spons­ible in terms of Art­icle 28 para­graphs 2 and 3, wil­fully fails to pre­vent the pub­lic­a­tion of ma­ter­i­al, the pub­lic­a­tion of which con­sti­tutes an of­fence shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty. If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a fine.

² If the pen­alty for the of­fence that ap­plies to the au­thor in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 28 para­graph 1 is less severe, that pen­alty shall be im­posed.

³ If the of­fence com­mit­ted by the au­thor is only pro­sec­uted on com­plaint, the of­fence un­der para­graph 1 shall only be pro­sec­uted if a com­plaint has been made against the au­thor.

Any per­son who of­fers, prom­ises or gives a mem­ber of a ju­di­cial or oth­er au­thor­ity, a pub­lic of­fi­cial, an of­fi­cially-ap­poin­ted ex­pert, trans­lat­or or in­ter­pret­er, an ar­bit­rat­or, or a mem­ber of the armed forces an un­due ad­vant­age, or of­fers, prom­ises or gives such an ad­vant­age to a third party in or­der to cause the pub­lic of­fi­cial to carry out or to fail to carry out an act in con­nec­tion with his of­fi­cial activ­ity which is con­trary to his duty or de­pend­ent on his dis­cre­tion,

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

Any per­son who as a mem­ber of a ju­di­cial or oth­er au­thor­ity, as a pub­lic of­fi­cial, of­fi­cially-ap­poin­ted ex­pert, trans­lat­or or in­ter­pret­er, or as an ar­bit­rat­or de­mands, se­cures the prom­ise of or ac­cepts an un­due ad­vant­age for that per­son or for a third party in or­der that he car­ries out or fails to carry out an act in con­nec­tion with his of­fi­cial activ­ity which is con­trary to his duty or de­pend­ent on his dis­cre­tion,

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

Any per­son who of­fers, prom­ises or gives a mem­ber of a ju­di­cial or oth­er au­thor­ity, a pub­lic of­fi­cial, an of­fi­cially-ap­poin­ted ex­pert, trans­lat­or or in­ter­pret­er, an ar­bit­rat­or or a mem­ber of the armed forces an un­due ad­vant­age for that per­son or for a third party in or­der that the per­son car­ries out his of­fi­cial du­ties shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who as a mem­ber of a ju­di­cial or oth­er au­thor­ity, as a pub­lic of­fi­cial, of­fi­cially-ap­poin­ted ex­pert, trans­lat­or or in­ter­pret­er, or as an ar­bit­rat­or, de­mands, se­cures the prom­ise of, or ac­cepts an un­due ad­vant­age for him­self or for a third party in or­der that he car­ries out his of­fi­cial du­ties shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

Any per­son who of­fers, prom­ises or gives a mem­ber of a ju­di­cial or oth­er au­thor­ity, a pub­lic of­fi­cial, an of­fi­cially-ap­poin­ted ex­pert, trans­lat­or or in­ter­pret­er, an ar­bit­rat­or, or a mem­ber of the armed forces who is act­ing for a for­eign state or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tion an un­due ad­vant­age, or gives such an ad­vant­age to a third party, in or­der that the per­son car­ries out or fails to carry out an act in con­nec­tion with his of­fi­cial activ­it­ies which is con­trary to his du­ties or de­pend­ent on his dis­cre­tion,

any per­son who as a mem­ber of a ju­di­cial or oth­er au­thor­ity, a pub­lic of­fi­cial, an of­fi­cially-ap­poin­ted ex­pert, trans­lat­or or in­ter­pret­er, an ar­bit­rat­or, or a mem­ber of the armed forces of a for­eign state or of an in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tion de­mands, se­cures the prom­ise of, or ac­cepts an un­due ad­vant­age for him­self or for a third party in or­der that he car­ries out or fails to carry out an act in con­nec­tion with his of­fi­cial activ­ity which is con­trary to his duty or de­pend­ent on his dis­cre­tion⁴⁷¹

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

1. Any per­son who of­fers, prom­ises or gives an em­ploy­ee, part­ner, agent or any oth­er aux­il­i­ary of a third party in the private sec­tor an un­due ad­vant­age for that per­son or a third party in or­der that the per­son car­ries out or fails to carry out an act in con­nec­tion with his of­fi­cial activ­it­ies which is con­trary to his du­ties or de­pend­ent on his dis­cre­tion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² In minor cases, the of­fence is only pro­sec­uted on com­plaint.

¹ Any per­son who as an em­ploy­ee, part­ner, agent or any oth­er aux­il­i­ary of a third party in the private sec­tor de­mands, se­cures the prom­ise of, or ac­cepts an un­due ad­vant­age for him­self or for a third party in or­der that the per­son car­ries out or fails to carry out an act in con­nec­tion with his of­fi­cial activ­it­ies which is con­trary to his du­ties or de­pend­ent on his dis­cre­tion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² In minor cases, the of­fence is only pro­sec­uted on com­plaint.

¹ The fol­low­ing are not un­due ad­vant­ages:

a.

ad­vant­ages per­mit­ted un­der pub­lic em­ploy­ment law or con­trac­tu­ally ap­proved by a third party;

b.

neg­li­gible ad­vant­ages that are com­mon so­cial prac­tice.

² Private in­di­vidu­als who ful­fil of­fi­cial du­ties are sub­ject to the same pro­vi­sions as pub­lic of­fi­cials.

The fol­low­ing per­sons are li­able to a fine:

1. a debt­or who is not present or has not ap­poin­ted a rep­res­ent­at­ive to be present at the seizure of or the re­cord­ing of an in­vent­ory of his as­sets of which he has been giv­en law­ful no­tice (Art. 91 para. 1 no 1, 163 para. 2 and 341 para. 1 DEBA⁴⁷⁷);⁴⁷⁸

2. a debt­or who fails to dis­close his as­sets in­clud­ing those not in his pos­ses­sion, or his claims and rights against third parties to the ex­tent re­quired to ob­tain sat­is­fac­tion by seizure or to im­ple­ment an at­tach­ment (Art. 91 para. 1 para. 2 and 275 DEBA);

3. a debt­or who fails to fully dis­close his as­sets in­clud­ing those not in his pos­ses­sion, or his claims and rights against third parties on the re­cord­ing of an in­vent­ory of as­sets (Art. 163 para. 2, 341 para. 1 DEBA);⁴⁷⁹

4. a debt­or who fails to dis­close or make avail­able all his as­sets to the Bank­ruptcy Of­fice (Art. 222 para. 1 DEBA);

5. a debt­or who does not make him­self avail­able to the bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­trat­or dur­ing the bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings un­less he has spe­cial per­mis­sion to be ex­cused this duty (Art. 229 para. 1 DEBA).

The fol­low­ing per­sons are li­able to a fine:

1. any adult per­son who shared a house­hold with a debt­or who is de­ceased or has ab­sconded and who fails to dis­close full de­tails of that debt­or's as­sets and to make them­selves avail­able to the Bank­ruptcy Of­fice (Art. 222 para. 2 DEBA⁴⁸¹);

2. any debt­or of a bank­rupt who fails to re­port to the Bank­ruptcy Of­fice with­in the time lim­it (Art. 232 para. 2 para. 3 DEBA);

3. any per­son who pos­sesses items be­long­ing to a debt­or as a pledge or for any oth­er reas­on and fails to de­liv­er such items to the Bank­ruptcy Of­fice with­in the time lim­it (Art. 232 para. 2 para. 4 DEBA);

4. any per­son who pos­sesses items be­long­ing to a debt­or as a pledgee and fails to de­liv­er such items to the li­quid­at­ors after ex­piry of the time lim­it for real­isa­tion (Art. 324 para. 2 DEBA);

5. any third party who fails to com­ply with his duty to provide in­form­a­tion and to de­liv­er as­sets in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 57apara­graph 1, 91 para­graph 4, 163 para­graph 2, 222 para­graph 4 and 341 para­graph 1 of the DEBA.⁴⁸²

Any per­son who wil­fully or through neg­li­gence fails to com­ply with the stat­utory duty to keep prop­er ac­counts or to pre­serve ac­counts, busi­ness cor­res­pond­ence and busi­ness tele­grams,

any per­son who wil­fully or through neg­li­gence fails to com­ply with the stat­utory duty to pre­serve ac­counts, busi­ness cor­res­pond­ence and busi­ness tele­grams,

shall be li­able to a fine.

A per­son shall be li­able to a fine if he or she wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts:

a.

provides false in­form­a­tion in the re­port on pay­ments made to state bod­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 964d CO⁴⁸⁴ or wholly or partly fails to make the re­quired re­port;

b.

fails to com­ply with the ob­lig­a­tion to keep and re­tain re­ports on pay­ments to state bod­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 964h CO.

¹ A per­son shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 100 000 francs if he or she wil­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts:

a.

provides false in­form­a­tion in the re­ports in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 964a, 964b and 964l CO⁴⁸⁶ or fails to make the re­quired re­ports;

b.

fails to com­ply with the stat­utory ob­lig­a­tion to re­tain and doc­u­ment the re­ports in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 964c and 964lCO.

² A per­son who acts through neg­li­gence shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 50 000 francs.

Any per­son who pre­vents or at­tempts to pre­vent a ten­ant by the threat of det­ri­ment­al con­sequences, and in par­tic­u­lar the ter­min­a­tion of the lease, from con­test­ing the level of rent or oth­er claims of the land­lord,

any per­son who serves no­tice of ter­min­a­tion on the ten­ant be­cause the ten­ant as­serts or wishes to as­sert his rights un­der the CO⁴⁸⁸, or

any per­son who un­law­fully de­mands or at­tempts to de­mand pay­ment of rent or oth­er claims after the fail­ure of an at­tempt to reach agree­ment there­on or fol­low­ing a court judg­ment there­on,

shall be li­able on com­plaint by the ten­ant to a fine.

¹ Where the acts con­sti­tut­ing of­fences un­der Art­icle 325^quater are com­mit­ted while at­tend­ing to the af­fairs of a leg­al en­tity, gen­er­al or lim­ited part­ner­ship or sole pro­pri­et­or­ship⁴⁹³ or oth­er­wise in the pro­vi­sion of com­mer­cial or busi­ness ser­vices to an­oth­er, the crim­in­al pro­vi­sions ap­ply to those nat­ur­al per­sons who have com­mit­ted the acts.⁴⁹⁴

² An em­ploy­er or prin­cip­al who is aware of the of­fence or be­comes aware of the of­fence sub­sequently and who, al­though he is in a po­s­i­tion to do so, fails to pre­vent the of­fence or to rem­edy its con­sequences shall be li­able to the same pen­al­ties as the of­fend­er.

³ If the em­ploy­er or prin­cip­al is a leg­al en­tity, gen­er­al or lim­ited part­ner­ship, sole pro­pri­et­or­ship⁴⁹⁵ or cor­por­ate body without leg­al per­son­al­ity, para­graph 2 ap­plies to the culp­able man­age­ment bod­ies, mem­bers of the man­age­ment bod­ies, ex­ec­ut­ive part­ners, de facto man­agers or li­quid­at­ors.

Any per­son who uses a name for a leg­al en­tity or branch entered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister that does not cor­res­pond to the name entered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister and which may be mis­lead­ing,

any per­son who uses a mis­lead­ing name for a leg­al en­tity or branch not entered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister, or

any per­son who gives the im­pres­sion that a for­eign leg­al en­tity not entered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister has its re­gistered of­fice or a branch in Switzer­land,

shall be li­able to a fine⁴⁹⁷.

Any per­son who as a man­age­ment of­ficer of an em­ploy­ee be­ne­fits in­sti­tu­tion is un­der a stat­utory ob­lig­a­tion to provide in­form­a­tion to be­ne­fi­ciar­ies and su­per­vis­ory bod­ies but fails to provide any in­form­a­tion or provides false in­form­a­tion shall be li­able to a fine.

Any per­son who wil­fully fails to com­ply with ob­lig­a­tions un­der Art­icle 697j para­graphs 1–4 or Art­icle 790a para­graphs 1–4 of the CO⁵⁰⁰ to give no­tice of be­ne­fi­cial own­er of shares or cap­it­al con­tri­bu­tions shall be li­able to a fine.

A per­son shall be li­able to a fine if he or she wil­fully fails to keep any of the fol­low­ing re­gisters in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions or if he or she in­fringes as­so­ci­ated com­pany law ob­lig­a­tions:

a.

in the case of a com­pany lim­ited by shares: the share re­gister in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 686 para­graphs 1–3 and 5 CO⁵⁰² or the re­gister of the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers of the shares in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 697l CO;

b.

in the case of a lim­ited li­ab­il­ity com­pany: the re­gister of con­tri­bu­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 790 para­graphs 1–3 and 5 CO or the re­gister of the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers of the cap­it­al con­tri­bu­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 790a para­graph 5 CO in con­junc­tion with Art­icle 697l CO;

c.

in the case of a co­oper­at­ive: the re­gister of co­oper­at­ive mem­bers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 837 para­graphs 1 and 2 CO;

d.

in the case of an in­vest­ment com­pany with vari­able cap­it­al (Art. 36 of the Col­lect­ive In­vest­ment Schemes Act of 23 June 2006⁵⁰³); the share re­gister re­cord­ing the com­pany share­hold­ers or the re­gister of the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers of the shares held by the com­pany share­hold­ers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 46 para­graph 3 of the Col­lect­ive In­vest­ment Schemes Act of 23 June 2006.

Any per­son who wil­fully fails to com­ply with the any of ob­lig­a­tions for as­so­ci­ations spe­cified in Art­icles 61a and 69 para­graph 2 of the Civil Code⁵⁰⁵ shall be li­able to a fine.

1. Any per­son who un­law­fully

enters build­ings or any oth­er places, the ac­cess to which is pro­hib­ited by the mil­it­ary au­thor­it­ies,

makes draw­ings, dia­grams or plans or takes pho­to­graphs or makes films of mil­it­ary es­tab­lish­ments or ob­jects serving the na­tion­al de­fence, or cop­ies or pub­lishes such draw­ings, dia­grams, plans, pho­to­graphs or films,

shall be li­able to a fine.

2. At­tempts and com­pli­city are also of­fences.

Any per­son who wears the uni­form of the Swiss armed forces without au­thor­ity shall be li­able to a fine.⁵⁰⁸

¹ The gen­er­al pro­vi­sions of this Code ap­ply to of­fences provided for in oth­er fed­er­al acts un­less these fed­er­al acts them­selves con­tain de­tailed pro­vi­sions on such of­fences.

² In the oth­er fed­er­al acts, the terms be­low are re­placed as fol­lows:

a.

pen­al ser­vitude by a cus­todi­al sen­tence of more than one year;

b.

im­pris­on­ment by a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or by a mon­et­ary pen­alty;

c.

im­pris­on­ment for less than six months by a mon­et­ary pen­alty, whereby a one-month cus­todi­al sen­tence cor­res­ponds to a mon­et­ary pen­alty of 30 daily pen­alty units up to a max­im­um of 3000 francs.

³ An of­fence that car­ries a max­im­um pen­alty of de­ten­tion or a fine or of a fine only is a con­tra­ven­tion. Art­icles 106 and 107 ap­ply. Art­icle 8 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁵¹¹ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law is re­served. An of­fence is also a con­tra­ven­tion if, in terms of an­oth­er Fed­er­al Act that came in­to force be­fore 1942, it car­ries a term of im­pris­on­ment not ex­ceed­ing three months.

⁴ Sen­tences of lengths dif­fer­ing from those men­tioned in para­graph 2 and Art­icle 41 as well as fines of amounts dif­fer­ing from those men­tioned in Art­icle 106 are re­served.

⁵ If an­oth­er fed­er­al act provides for a fine to be im­posed for a felony or mis­de­mean­our, Art­icle 34 ap­plies. Rules on de­term­in­ing a pen­alty that dif­fer from Art­icle 34 do not ap­ply. Art­icle 8 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974 on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law re­mains re­served. If the fine is lim­ited to a sum un­der 1 080 000 francs, this lim­it no longer ap­plies. If the fine is lim­ited to a sum ex­ceed­ing 1 080 000 francs, this lim­it con­tin­ues to ap­ply. In this case, the max­im­um num­ber of daily pen­alty units equals the cur­rent max­im­um fine di­vided by 3000.

⁶ …⁵¹²

^6bis If an of­fence car­ries a cus­todi­al sen­tence or a mon­et­ary pen­alty with a min­im­um num­ber of daily pen­alty units, the lower lim­it also ap­plies to the min­im­um num­ber of days in cus­tody.⁵¹³

⁷ The con­tra­ven­tions provided for in oth­er fed­er­al acts are of­fences, even if they have been com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, un­less only in­ten­tion­al com­mis­sion is an of­fence in terms of the pro­vi­sion con­cerned.

If ref­er­ence is made in fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion to pro­vi­sions be­ing amended or re­pealed by this Code, the ref­er­ences re­late to the pro­vi­sions of this Code that reg­u­late the mat­ter.

¹ The can­tons re­tain the power to le­gis­late on con­tra­ven­tions that are not the sub­ject mat­ter of fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion.

² The can­tons have the power to provide for sanc­tions for of­fences against can­ton­al ad­min­is­trat­ive and pro­ced­ur­al law.

The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies may only dis­close per­son­al data if there is a leg­al basis for do­ing so un­der Art­icle 36 para­graph 1 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020⁵¹⁹ (FADP) or if:⁵²⁰

a.

dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data is re­quired to pro­tect the life or phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of the per­son con­cerned or of a third party;

b.

the per­son con­cerned has made their per­son­al data gen­er­al ac­cess­ible and has not ex­pressly pro­hib­ited the dis­clos­ure of the data.

¹ For the dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of states linked to Switzer­land by one of the Schen­gen as­so­ci­ation agree­ments (Schen­gen States), no stricter data pro­tec­tion rules may ap­ply than for the dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data to Swiss crim­in­al au­thor­it­ies.

² Spe­cial laws provid­ing for stricter data pro­tec­tion rules for the dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data to the com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­it­ies do not ap­ply to dis­clos­ure to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the Schen­gen States.

¹ Per­son­al data may not be dis­closed to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of a state which is not linked to Switzer­land by one of the Schen­gen as­so­ci­ation agree­ments (third coun­try), or to an in­ter­na­tion­al body if this would ser­i­ously en­danger the pri­vacy of the data sub­jects, in par­tic­u­lar due to a lack of ad­equate pro­tec­tion.

² Ad­equate pro­tec­tion shall be en­sured by:

a.

the le­gis­la­tion of the third coun­try, if the European Uni­on has so provided in a in a res­ol­u­tion;

b.

an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty;

c.

spe­cif­ic guar­an­tees.

³ If the dis­clos­ing au­thor­ity is a fed­er­al au­thor­ity, it shall in­form the Fed­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion and In­form­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er (FD­PIC) of the cat­egor­ies of dis­clos­ures of per­son­al data made on the basis of spe­cif­ic guar­an­tees pur­su­ant to para­graph 2 let­ter c. Every dis­clos­ure is doc­u­mented.⁵²³

⁴ By way of derog­a­tion from para­graph 1, per­son­al data may be dis­closed to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of a third coun­try or an in­ter­na­tion­al body if dis­clos­ure is ne­ces­sary in a par­tic­u­lar case:

a.

to pro­tect the life or the phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of the data sub­ject or of a third party;

b.

to pre­vent im­min­ent ser­i­ous danger threat­en­ing the pub­lic se­cur­ity of a Schen­gen or a third coun­try;

c.

to pre­vent, de­tect or pro­sec­ute a crim­in­al of­fence, provided that dis­clos­ure does not con­flict with the over­rid­ing le­git­im­ate in­terests of the data sub­ject;

d.

to ex­er­cise or en­force leg­al claims against an au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the pre­ven­tion, de­tec­tion or pro­sec­u­tion of a crim­in­al of­fence, provided that dis­clos­ure does not con­flict with the over­rid­ing le­git­im­ate in­terests of the data sub­ject.

⁵ If the dis­clos­ing au­thor­ity is a fed­er­al au­thor­ity, it shall in­form the FD­PIC⁵²⁴ of the dis­clos­ures pur­su­ant to para­graph 4.

¹ Per­son­al data trans­mit­ted or made avail­able by a Schen­gen State may be dis­closed to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of a third coun­try or an in­ter­na­tion­al body, only if:

a.

the dis­clos­ure is ne­ces­sary to pre­vent, de­tect or pro­sec­ute a crim­in­al of­fence;

b.

the Schen­gen State which trans­mit­ted or made avail­able the per­son­al data has giv­en its pri­or con­sent to the dis­clos­ure; and

c.

the re­quire­ments un­der Art­icle 349c are ful­filled.

² By way of derog­a­tion from para­graph 1 let­ter b, per­son­al data may be dis­closed in a par­tic­u­lar case, if:

a.

the pri­or con­sent of the Schen­gen State not can­not be ob­tained in time; and

b.

dis­clos­ure is es­sen­tial to pre­vent an im­min­ent ser­i­ous threat to the pub­lic se­cur­ity of a Schen­gen State or a third coun­try or for safe­guard­ing the es­sen­tial in­terests of a Schen­gen State.

³ The Schen­gen State shall be in­formed im­me­di­ately of the dis­clos­ure re­ferred to in para­graph 2.

¹ Where it is not pos­sible, in par­tic­u­lar in cases of emer­gency, to dis­close per­son­al data to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of a third coun­try through the nor­mal chan­nels of po­lice co­oper­a­tion, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may ex­cep­tion­ally dis­close them to a re­cip­i­ent es­tab­lished in that coun­try, provided the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments are ful­filled:

a.

The dis­clos­ure is es­sen­tial to ful­fil a stat­utory task of the au­thor­ity dis­clos­ing the data.

b.

No over­rid­ing in­terests of the data sub­ject worthy of pro­tec­tion stand in the way of dis­clos­ure.

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall in­form the re­cip­i­ent of the per­son­al data at the time of dis­clos­ure that he may use the data only for the pur­poses spe­cified by the au­thor­ity.

³ It shall in­form the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the third coun­try without delay of any dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data, provided it con­siders this ap­pro­pri­ate.

⁴ If the re­spons­ible au­thor­ity is a fed­er­al au­thor­ity, it shall in­form the FD­PIC without delay of any dis­clos­ure pur­su­ant to para­graph 1.

⁵ It shall doc­u­ment each dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall cor­rect in­cor­rect per­son­al data without delay.

² It shall no­ti­fy the au­thor­ity which trans­mit­ted the data, made them avail­able or dis­closed them of the cor­rec­tion without delay.

³ It shall in­form the re­cip­i­ent wheth­er the data it has dis­closed are up-to-date and re­li­able.

⁴ It shall also provide the re­cip­i­ent with any fur­ther in­form­a­tion that can be used to dis­tin­guish:

a.

the dif­fer­ent cat­egor­ies of data sub­jects;

b.

per­son­al data based on facts and on per­son­al as­sess­ments.

⁵ The ob­lig­a­tion to in­form the re­cip­i­ent ceases to ap­ply if the in­form­a­tion re­ferred to in para­graphs 3 and 4 is clear from the per­son­al data it­self or from the cir­cum­stances.

¹ The data sub­ject may re­quest the FD­PIC to check wheth­er any data re­lat­ing to the data sub­ject is be­ing pro­cessed law­fully if:

a.

the data sub­ject’s right to in­form­a­tion about the ex­change of data about them is re­stric­ted or de­ferred (Art. 19 and 20 FADP⁵²⁹);

b.

his or her right to in­form­a­tion is denied, re­stric­ted or de­ferred (Art. 25 and 26 FADP); or

c.

his or her right to re­quest the rec­ti­fic­a­tion, de­struc­tion or de­le­tion of data re­lat­ing to him or her is par­tially or com­pletely denied (Art. 41 para. 2 let. a FADP).⁵³⁰

² Only a fed­er­al au­thor­ity un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the FD­PIC may be ex­amined.

³ The Com­mis­sion­er shall com­plete the veri­fic­a­tion; he shall no­ti­fy the data sub­ject that either no data re­lat­ing to him or her has been un­law­fully pro­cessed, or that he has opened an in­vest­ig­a­tion pur­su­ant to Art­icle 49 FADP in the case of er­rors in the pro­cessing of per­son­al data.⁵³¹

⁴ If the FD­PIC finds er­rors in the pro­cessing of the data, he shall or­der the com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity to cor­rect them.

⁵ The no­ti­fic­a­tion re­ferred to in para­graph 3 shall al­ways be worded in the same way and is not sub­stan­ti­ated. It may not be con­tested.

¹ If a data sub­ject cred­ibly demon­strates that an ex­change of per­son­al data con­cern­ing him or her could vi­ol­ate the pro­vi­sions on the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al data, he or she may re­quest the FD­PIC to open an in­vest­ig­a­tion pur­su­ant to Art­icle 49 FADP⁵³³.⁵³⁴

² An in­vest­ig­a­tion may only be opened against a fed­er­al au­thor­ity that is un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the FD­PIC.

³ The parties are the data sub­ject and the fed­er­al au­thor­ity against which the in­vest­ig­a­tion has been opened.

⁴ Art­icles 50 and 51 FADP also ap­ply.⁵³⁵

¹ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice car­ries out the du­ties of a Na­tion­al Cent­ral Bur­eau in terms of the Con­sti­tu­tion and Gen­er­al Reg­u­la­tions of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­in­al Po­lice Or­gan­iz­a­tion (IN­TER­POL).

² It is re­spons­ible for co­ordin­at­ing the ex­change of in­form­a­tion between the fed­er­al and can­ton­al pro­sec­u­tion ser­vices on the one hand and the Na­tion­al Cent­ral Bur­eaus of oth­er states and the Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ari­at of IN­TER­POL on the oth­er.

¹ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice co­ordin­ates the ex­change of po­lice in­form­a­tion for the in­vest­ig­a­tion and pro­sec­u­tion of­fences and for the ex­e­cu­tion of sen­tences and meas­ures.

² It may trans­mit po­lice in­form­a­tion for the pur­pose of pre­vent­ing of­fences if there are spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions that there is a ser­i­ous prob­ab­il­ity of a felony or mis­de­mean­our be­ing com­mit­ted.

³ It may co­ordin­ate the ex­change of in­form­a­tion re­lat­ing to searches for miss­ing per­sons and for the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of un­known per­sons.

⁴ In the in­terest of pre­vent­ing and in­vest­ig­at­ing of­fences, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice may re­ceive and provide in­form­a­tion from and to private in­di­vidu­als if this is in the in­terests of the per­sons con­cerned and their con­sent has been giv­en or may be as­sumed in the cir­cum­stances.

¹ The ex­change of po­lice in­form­a­tion is gov­erned by the prin­ciples of the Mu­tu­al As­sist­ance Act of 20 March 1981⁵³⁹ as well as the Con­sti­tu­tion and Gen­er­al Reg­u­la­tions of IN­TER­POL de­clared to be ap­plic­able by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² The FADP⁵⁴⁰ ap­plies to the ex­change of in­form­a­tion in con­nec­tion with searches for miss­ing per­sons and the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of un­known per­sons and for ad­min­is­trat­ive pur­poses.⁵⁴¹

³ The Fed­er­al Of­fice may provide in­form­a­tion dir­ectly to the Cent­ral Bur­eaus of oth­er states provided the re­cip­i­ent state is sub­ject to the IN­TER­POL data pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide fin­an­cial aid and make pay­ments to IN­TER­POL.

¹ The re­spons­ible de­part­ment shall re­gister and store bio­met­ric crim­in­al re­cords data re­cor­ded and trans­mit­ted to the de­part­ment by can­ton­al, fed­er­al and for­eign au­thor­it­ies in con­nec­tion with crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings or in ful­fil­ment of oth­er stat­utory du­ties. This data may be used for com­par­is­on pur­poses to identi­fy a wanted or un­known per­son.

² The fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies may use and pro­cess data in terms of para­graph 1:

a.

the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice;

b.

the State Sec­ret­ari­at for Mi­gra­tion (SEM);

c.

the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice;

d.

the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity⁵⁴⁴;

e.

the Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tions abroad re­spons­ible for is­su­ing visas;

f.

the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice;

g.

the can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies;

h.

the can­ton­al mi­gra­tion au­thor­it­ies.⁵⁴⁵

³ Per­son­al data that relates data in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 shall be pro­cessed in sep­ar­ate in­form­a­tion sys­tems; the pro­ced­ure is sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 13 June 2008⁵⁴⁶ on Fed­er­al Po­lice In­form­a­tion Sys­tems, the Asylum Act of 26 June 1998⁵⁴⁷ and the For­eign Na­tion­als and In­teg­ra­tion Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005⁵⁴⁸ and the Cus­toms Act of 18 March 2005⁵⁴⁹.

⁴ The data may be used:

a.

un­til the ex­piry of the dead­lines for the de­le­tion of DNA pro­files spe­cified in Art­icles 16–19 des DNA Pro­fil­ing Act of 20 June 2003⁵⁵⁰; or

b.⁵⁵¹

in the case of a con­vic­tion for a con­tra­ven­tion: for up to five years from the date of the judg­ment, provided the judg­ment is fi­nal.⁵⁵²

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails, and in par­tic­u­lar the re­ten­tion peri­od for data that is re­cor­ded out­side crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings, the de­le­tion pro­ced­ure and co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons. It shall reg­u­late the trans­mis­sion of crim­in­al re­cords data by the com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies and the can­tons.⁵⁵³

⁶ SEM or the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice (fed­pol) may trans­mit the data in an auto­mated pro­ced­ure to the na­tion­al sec­tion of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS) for the pur­pose of is­su­ing alerts.⁵⁵⁴

¹ fed­pol and the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice (FIS) may pass on per­son­al data, in­clud­ing sens­it­ive per­son­al data to the European Po­lice Of­fice (Euro­pol).⁵⁵⁸

² The passing on of such data is sub­ject in par­tic­u­lar to the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 3 and 10–13 of the Agree­ment of 24 Septem­ber 2004⁵⁵⁹ between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion and the European Po­lice Of­fice.

³ At the same time as passing on data, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice shall no­ti­fy Euro­pol of the pur­pose for which the data is provided as well as of any re­stric­tions with re­gard to its pro­cessing to which it is it­self sub­ject in ac­cord­ance with fed­er­al or can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion.

⁴ The ex­change of per­son­al data with Euro­pol is re­garded as equi­val­ent to an ex­change with a com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of a Schen­gen State (Art. 349b).⁵⁶⁰

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is au­thor­ised to agree with Euro­pol amend­ments to the scope of its man­date in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 3 para­graph 3 of the Agree­ment of 24 Septem­ber 2004⁵⁶³ between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion and the European Po­lice Of­fice.

The fed­er­al and can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies shall im­ple­ment the pro­vi­sions of the Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ment⁵⁶⁵ in ac­cord­ance with do­mest­ic law.

¹ fed­pol man­ages the cent­ral of­fice for the ex­change of sup­ple­ment­ary in­form­a­tion with the Schen­gen states (SIRENE Of­fice).⁵⁶⁸

² Das SIRENE Of­fice is the con­tact, co­ordin­a­tion and con­sulta­tion point for the ex­change of in­form­a­tion in con­nec­tion with the alerts in the SIS. It re­views the form­al ad­miss­ib­il­ity of Swiss and for­eign alerts in the SIS.

If an in­vest­ig­at­ing au­thor­ity es­tab­lishes that por­no­graph­ic art­icles (Art. 197 para. 4) have been pro­duced in or im­por­ted from a for­eign state, it shall im­me­di­ately no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al Cent­ral Of­fice for Com­bat­ing Por­no­graphy.