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Chapter 3 Witnesses

Section 1 General Provisions

Art. 162 Definition  

A wit­ness is a per­son not in­volved in com­mit­ting an of­fence who can make a state­ment that may as­sist in the in­vest­ig­a­tion of an of­fence and who is not a per­son provid­ing in­form­a­tion.

Art. 163 Capacity and duty to testify  

1 A per­son has the ca­pa­city to testi­fy if he or she is over the age of 15 and has the re­quired men­tal ca­pa­city with re­gard to the sub­ject mat­ter of the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing.

2 Every per­son with the ca­pa­city to testi­fy is ob­liged to make a state­ment and to tell the truth, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions on rights to re­fuse to testi­fy.

Art. 164 Enquiries relating to witnesses  

1 En­quir­ies may be made in­to the pre­vi­ous con­duct and the per­son­al cir­cum­stances of a wit­ness only if this is rel­ev­ant to an as­sess­ment of his or her cred­ib­il­ity.

2 If there are doubts as to the men­tal ca­pa­city of a wit­ness or if there are in­dic­a­tions of a men­tal dis­order, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may or­der an out­pa­tient ex­am­in­a­tion of the wit­ness if this is jus­ti­fied by the im­port­ance of the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and of the wit­nesses testi­mony.

Art. 165 Witness's duty of confidentiality  

1 The au­thor­ity con­duct­ing the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing may re­quire a wit­ness sub­ject to ad­vising him or her of the pen­al­ties un­der Art­icle 292 SCC44 to treat the planned or com­pleted in­ter­view and its sub­ject mat­ter as con­fid­en­tial.

2 This ob­lig­a­tion shall be made sub­ject to a time lim­it.

3 The or­der may be com­bined with the wit­ness's sum­mons.

Art. 166 Interview with the person suffering harm  

1 The per­son suf­fer­ing harm shall be in­ter­viewed as a wit­ness.

2 The right to in­ter­view the per­son suf­fer­ing harm as a per­son provid­ing in­form­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 178 is re­served.

Art. 167 Compensation  

A wit­ness is en­titled to ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion for loss of in­come and ex­penses.

Section 2 Rights to Refuse to Testify

Art. 168 Right to refuse to testify due to a personal relationship  

1 The fol­low­ing per­sons may re­fuse to testi­fy:

a.
the ac­cused's spouse or the per­son who co­hab­its with the ac­cused;
b.
any­one who has a child with the ac­cused;
c.
any­one who is re­lated to the ac­cused in dir­ect line or by mar­riage;
d.
the ac­cused's sib­lings and stepsib­lings and the spouse of a sib­ling or stepsib­ling;
e.
the sib­lings and stepsib­lings of the ac­cused's spouse, and the spouse of such a sib­ling or stepsib­ling;
f.
the ac­cused's foster par­ents, foster chil­dren and foster sib­lings;
g.45
a per­son ap­poin­ted to act as guard­i­an or deputy for the ac­cused.

2 The right to re­fuse to testi­fy un­der para­graph 1 let­ters a and f re­mains val­id if the mar­riage is dis­solved or if in the case of a foster fam­ily46, the foster re­la­tion­ship no longer ap­plies.

3 A re­gistered part­ner­ship is deemed equi­val­ent to mar­riage.

4 The right to re­fuse to testi­fy ceases to ap­ply if:

a.47
the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings con­cern an of­fence un­der Art­icles 111–113, 122, 124, 140, 184, 185, 187, 189, 190 or 191 SCC48; and
b.
the crim­in­al act was dir­ec­ted at a per­son to whom the wit­ness in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1–3 is re­lated.

45Amended by An­nex No 2 of the FA of 15 Dec. 2017 (Child Pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 2947; BBl 2015 3431).

46 Art. 4–11 of the Or­din­ance of 19 Oct. 1977 on the Place­ment of Chil­dren in Foster Care and for Ad­op­tion (SR 211.222.338).

47 Amended by No III of the FA of 30 Sept. 2011, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2012 (AS 2012 2575; BBl 2010 56515677).

48 SR 311.0

Art. 169 Right to refuse to testify for personal protection or to protect closely related persons  

1 A per­son may the re­fuse to testi­fy if he or she would in­crim­in­ate him or her­self by testi­fy­ing such that he or she:

a.
could be found guilty of an of­fence;
b.
could be held li­able un­der the civil law and the in­terest in pro­tec­tion out­weighs the in­terest in pro­sec­u­tion.

2 The right to re­fuse to testi­fy also ap­plies if the per­son by testi­fy­ing would in­crim­in­ate a closely re­lated per­son as defined in Art­icle 168 para­graphs 1–3; Art­icle 168 para­graph 4 re­mains re­served.

3 A per­son may re­fuse to testi­fy if by testi­fy­ing he or she or a closely re­lated per­son as defined in Art­icle 168 para­graphs 1–3 would be ex­posed to a con­sid­er­able risk to life and limb or oth­er ser­i­ous det­ri­ment that can­not be pre­ven­ted by tak­ing pro­tect­ive meas­ures.

4 A vic­tim of a sexu­al of­fence may in every case re­fuse to an­swer ques­tions that re­late to his or her private do­main.

Art. 170 Right to refuse to testify due to official secrecy  

1 Pub­lic of­fi­cials as defined in Art­icle 110 para­graph 3 SCC49 as well as mem­bers of au­thor­it­ies may re­fuse to testi­fy on secret mat­ters com­mu­nic­ated to them in their of­fi­cial ca­pa­city or which have come to their know­ledge in the ex­er­cise of their of­fice.

2 They must testi­fy if they have been giv­en writ­ten au­thor­isa­tion to do so by their su­per­i­or.

3 The su­per­i­or shall grant au­thor­isa­tion to testi­fy if the in­terest in es­tab­lish­ing the truth out­weighs the in­terest in pre­serving secrecy.

Art. 171 Right to refuse to testify due to professional confidentiality  

1 Mem­bers of the clergy, law­yers, de­fence law­yers, not­ar­ies, pat­ent at­tor­neys, doc­tors, dent­ists, phar­macists, psy­cho­lo­gists and as­sist­ants to such per­sons may re­fuse to testi­fy in re­la­tion to con­fid­en­tial mat­ters that have been con­fided to them or come to their know­ledge in the course of their pro­fes­sion­al work.50

2 They must testi­fy if they:

a.
are sub­ject to a duty to re­port; or
b.
are re­lieved of their duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in terms of Art­icle 321 num­ber 2 SCC51 by the per­son to whom the con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion per­tains or through the writ­ten con­sent of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

3 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity shall also re­spect pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in cases where the per­son en­trus­ted with con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion is re­lieved of the duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity but he or she es­tab­lishes that the in­terest of the per­son to whom the con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion per­tains out­weighs the in­terest in es­tab­lish­ing the truth.

4 The pro­vi­sions of the Law­yers Act of 23 June 200052 are re­served.

50 Amended by An­nex No 2 of the Health­care Oc­cu­pa­tions Act of 30 Sept. 2016, in force since 1 Feb. 2020 (AS 2020 57; BBl 2015 8715).

51 SR 311.0

52 SR 935.61

Art. 172 Protection of journalists' sources  

1 Per­sons in­volved pro­fes­sion­ally in the pub­lic­a­tion of in­form­a­tion in the ed­it­or­i­al sec­tion of a me­di­um that ap­pears peri­od­ic­ally, to­geth­er with their aux­il­i­ary per­son­nel may re­fuse to testi­fy as to the iden­tity of the au­thor or as to the con­tent and sources of their in­form­a­tion.

2 They must testi­fy if:

a.
the testi­mony is re­quired to save a per­son from im­me­di­ate danger to life and limb;
b.
without the testi­mony one of the fol­low­ing of­fences will not be solved or a per­son sus­pec­ted of com­mit­ting such an of­fence may not be ap­pre­hen­ded:
1.
hom­icide of­fences in terms of Art­icles 111–113 SCC53,
2.
felon­ies car­ry­ing a cus­todi­al sen­tence of at least 3 years,
3.54
of­fences in terms of Art­icles 187, 189, 190, 191, 197 para­graph 4, 260ter, 260quin­quies, 260sex­ies, 305bis, 305ter and 322ter–322sep­ties SCC,
4.55
of­fences in terms of Art­icle 19 num­ber 2 of the Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 195156.

53 SR 311.0

54 Amended by An­nex No II 3 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).

55 Cor­rec­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly Draft­ing Com­mit­tee dated 19 Sept. 2014, pub­lished on 4 Oct. 2014 (AS 2011 4487).

56 SR 812.121

Art. 173 Right to refuse to testify due to other duties of confidentiality  

1 Any per­son who is re­quired to pre­serve pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in ac­cord­ance with any of the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions must testi­fy only if the in­terest in es­tab­lish­ing the truth out­weighs the in­terest in pre­serving con­fid­en­ti­al­ity:

a.
Art­icle 321bis SCC57;
b.
Art­icle 139 para­graph 3 of the Civil Code58;
c.
Art­icle 2 of the Fed­er­al Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 198159 on Preg­nancy Ad­vis­ory Centres;
d.60
Art­icle 11 of the Vic­tim Sup­port Act of 23 March 200761;
e.62
Art­icle 15 para­graph 2 of the Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 195163;
f.64
Art­icle 16 let­ter f of the Health­care Oc­cu­pa­tions Act of 30 Septem­ber 201665.

2 Per­sons en­trus­ted with oth­er con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion pro­tec­ted by law are re­quired to testi­fy. The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may re­lieve them of the duty to testi­fy if they are able to es­tab­lish that the in­terest in pre­serving con­fid­en­ti­al­ity out­weighs the in­terest in es­tab­lish­ing the truth.

57 SR 311.0

58 SR 210. This Art. has now been re­pealed.

59 SR 857.5

60 Amended by An­nex No II 7 of the Crim­in­al Justice Au­thor­it­ies Act of 19 March 2010, in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 3267; BBl 2008 8125).

61 SR 312.5

62 Cor­rec­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly Draft­ing Com­mit­tee dated 19 Sept. 2014, pub­lished on 4 Oct. 2014 (AS 2011 4487).

63 SR 812.121

64 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 2 of the Health­care Oc­cu­pa­tions Act of 30 Sept. 2016, in force since 1 Feb. 2020 (AS 2020 57; BBl 2015 8715).

65 SR 811.21

Art. 174 Decision on permitting a person to refuse to testify  

1 The de­cision on wheth­er to al­low a per­son to re­fuse to testi­fy is made by:

a.
the au­thor­ity con­duct­ing the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing in the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings;
b.
the court after charges have been brought.

2 The wit­ness may re­quest a re­view by the ob­jec­tions au­thor­ity im­me­di­ately after re­ceiv­ing no­ti­fic­a­tion of the de­cision.

3 Un­til the ob­jec­tions au­thor­ity makes its de­cision, the wit­ness is en­titled to re­fuse to testi­fy.

Art. 175 Exercise of the right to refuse to testify  

1 The wit­ness may in­voke his or her right to re­fuse to testi­fy at any time or re­voke his or her waiver of that right.

2 State­ments made by a wit­ness after be­ing cau­tioned with re­gard to the right to re­fuse to testi­fy may be ad­mit­ted as evid­ence if the wit­ness sub­sequently ex­er­cises the right to re­fuse to testi­fy or re­vokes a waiver of the right to re­fuse to testi­fy.

Art. 176 Unlawful refusal to testify  

1 Any per­son who re­fuses to testi­fy without hav­ing the right to do so may be li­able to a fixed pen­alty fine and may be re­quired to pay the costs and dam­ages in­curred as a res­ult of such re­fus­al.

2 If a per­son who is ob­liged to testi­fy in­sists on re­fus­ing to do so, he or she will again be re­ques­ted to testi­fy and cau­tioned as to the pen­al­ties un­der Art­icle 292 SCC66. In the event of con­tin­ued re­fus­al, crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings shall be com­menced.

Section 3 Examination Hearings with Witnesses

Art. 177  

1 The au­thor­ity con­duct­ing the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing shall cau­tion the wit­ness at the be­gin­ning of each hear­ing with re­gard to the ob­lig­a­tions to testi­fy and to tell the truth and ad­vise the wit­ness of the pen­al­ties for per­jury in terms of Art­icle 307 SCC67. If no cau­tion is giv­en, the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing is in­val­id.

2 The au­thor­ity con­duct­ing the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing shall ques­tion each wit­ness at the be­gin­ning of the first hear­ing as to his or her re­la­tion­ship with the parties and as to oth­er cir­cum­stances that may be rel­ev­ant to the wit­ness's cred­ib­il­ity.

3 It shall cau­tion the wit­ness as to the rights to re­fuse to testi­fy as soon as it be­comes ap­par­ent through ques­tion­ing or the files that such rights ap­ply. If no cau­tion is giv­en and the wit­ness sub­sequently ex­er­cises the right to re­fuse to testi­fy, the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing is in­ad­miss­ible.

Chapter 4 Persons providing Information

Art. 178 Definition  

The fol­low­ing per­sons may be in­ter­viewed as per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion:

a.
a per­son who has giv­en no­tice that he or she is a private claimant;
b.
a per­son who is un­der the age of 15 at the time of the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing;
c.
a per­son who due to lim­ited men­tal ca­pa­city is not able to un­der­stand the sub­ject mat­ter of the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing;
d.
a per­son who is not an ac­cused but who can­not be ex­cluded as the per­pet­rat­or of or as a par­ti­cipant in the of­fence un­der in­vest­ig­a­tion or an­oth­er re­lated of­fence;
e.
a per­son who is a co-ac­cused who must be in­ter­viewed with re­gard to an of­fence of which he or she is not per­son­ally ac­cused;
f.
a per­son who is the ac­cused in oth­er pro­ceed­ings re­lat­ing to an of­fence con­nec­ted with the of­fence un­der in­vest­ig­a­tion;
g.
a per­son who has been or could be des­ig­nated as the rep­res­ent­at­ive of a cor­por­ate en­tity in crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings against that en­tity, as well as his or her em­ploy­ees.
Art. 179 Persons providing information at police examination hearings  

1 The po­lice shall ques­tion any per­son who is not a sus­pect in the ca­pa­city of a per­son provid­ing in­form­a­tion.

2 The fore­go­ing is sub­ject to the right to ques­tion a per­son as a wit­ness in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 142 para­graph 2.

Art. 180 Status  

1 Per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 178 let­ters b–g have the right to re­main si­lent; they are sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions on ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ings with the ac­cused, mu­tatis mutandis.

2 A private claimant (Art. 178 let. a) is ob­liged to testi­fy be­fore the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, be­fore the courts and be­fore the po­lice if they in­ter­view the claimant on be­half of the pub­lic pro­sec­utor. In ad­di­tion, the pro­vi­sions on wit­nesses ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis, with ex­cep­tion of Art­icle 176.

Art. 181 Examination hearing  

1 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies shall cau­tion per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion at the be­gin­ning of the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing with re­gard to their ob­lig­a­tion to testi­fy or their right to re­main si­lent or right to re­fuse to testi­fy.

2 They shall cau­tion per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion who are ob­liged to testi­fy or who de­clare that they are pre­pared to testi­fy with re­gard to the pos­sible pen­al­ties for false ac­cus­a­tion, of mis­lead­ing ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies and of as­sist­ing of­fend­ers.

Chapter 5 Authorised Experts

Art. 182 Requirements for requesting the services of an expert witness  

The pub­lic pro­sec­utor and courts shall re­quest the ser­vices of one or more ex­pert wit­nesses if they do not have the spe­cial­ist know­ledge and skills re­quired to de­term­ine or as­sess the facts of the case.

Art. 183 Requirements for the expert witness  

1 Any nat­ur­al per­son with the re­quired spe­cial­ist know­ledge and skills in the rel­ev­ant field may be ap­poin­ted as an ex­pert wit­ness.

2 The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons may provide for the re­ten­tion of per­man­ent or of­fi­cial ex­pert wit­nesses for spe­cif­ic fields.

3 Au­thor­ised ex­perts are sub­ject to the grounds for re­cus­al in terms of Art­icle 56.

Art. 184 Appointment and instructions  

1 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall ap­point the ex­pert wit­ness.

2 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall provide writ­ten in­struc­tions; these shall con­tain:

a.
the per­son­al de­tails of the ex­pert wit­ness;
b.
if ap­plic­able, no­tice that the ex­pert wit­ness may in­struct oth­ers to as­sist in pre­par­ing the re­port sub­ject to his or her su­per­vi­sion;
c.
the pre­cisely for­mu­lated ques­tions;
d.
the dead­line for com­plet­ing the re­port;
e.
ref­er­ence to the duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity that ap­plies to the ex­pert wit­ness and any as­sist­ants;
f.
a ref­er­ence to the pen­al­ties for per­jury by an ex­pert wit­ness in terms of Art­icle 307 SCC68.

3 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall give the parties pri­or op­por­tun­ity to com­ment on the ex­pert wit­ness and on the ques­tions and to sub­mit their own ap­plic­a­tions. The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may dis­pense with this re­quire­ment in re­la­tion to labor­at­ory tests, in par­tic­u­lar where they re­late to de­term­in­ing the blood-al­co­hol con­cen­tra­tion or the level of pur­ity of sub­stances, proof of the pres­ence of nar­cot­ics in the blood or the pre­par­a­tion of a DNA pro­file.

4 To­geth­er with the in­struc­tions, they shall provide the ex­pert wit­ness with the doc­u­ments and items re­quired to pre­pare the re­port.

5 They may re­voke their in­struc­tions at any time and ap­point new ex­pert wit­nesses if this is in the in­terests of the crim­in­al case.

6 They may re­quest an es­tim­ate of the costs be­fore is­su­ing the in­struc­tions.

7 If a private claimant re­quests an ex­pert re­port, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may make in­struct­ing an ex­pert wit­ness de­pend­ent on the private claimant mak­ing an ad­vance pay­ment to cov­er costs.

Art. 185 Preparation of the report  

1 The ex­pert wit­ness is per­son­ally re­spons­ible for the ex­pert re­port.

2 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may re­quest the ex­pert wit­ness to at­tend pro­ced­ur­al hear­ings and au­thor­ise the ex­pert to put ques­tions to the per­son be­ing ques­tioned.

3 If the ex­pert wit­ness is of the view that doc­u­ments must be ad­ded to the case files, he or she shall make the rel­ev­ant ap­plic­a­tion to the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings.

4 The ex­pert wit­ness may con­duct simple en­quir­ies that are closely con­nec­ted to his or her as­sign­ment and for this pur­pose may re­quest per­sons to co­oper­ate. These per­sons must com­ply with the in­struc­tions. If they re­fuse, they may be brought be­fore the ex­pert wit­ness by the po­lice.

5 In re­la­tion to en­quir­ies by the ex­pert wit­ness, the ac­cused and, to the ex­tent of their right to re­fuse to testi­fy, per­sons who have the right to re­main si­lent or to re­fuse to testi­fy may re­fuse to co­oper­ate. The ex­pert wit­ness shall cau­tion the per­sons con­cerned with re­gard to such rights at the start of his or her en­quir­ies.

Art. 186 In-patient assessment  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor or courts may have an ac­cused ad­mit­ted to hos­pit­al if this is re­quired in or­der to pre­pare a med­ic­al re­port.

2 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall ap­ply to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court for the ac­cused to be ad­mit­ted to hos­pit­al un­less the ac­cused is already on re­mand. The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall is­sue a fi­nal judg­ment on the mat­ter in writ­ten pro­ceed­ings.

3 If an in-pa­tient as­sess­ment proves ne­ces­sary dur­ing the court pro­ceed­ings, the court con­cerned shall is­sue a fi­nal de­cision on the mat­ter in writ­ten pro­ceed­ings.

4 The time spent in hos­pit­al shall be taken in­to ac­count in the sen­tence.

5 In ad­di­tion, the in-pa­tient as­sess­ment is gov­erned by mu­tatis mutandis by the reg­u­la­tions on re­mand and pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion.

Art. 187 Form of the expert report  

1 The ex­pert wit­ness shall pre­pare an ex­pert re­port in writ­ing. If ad­di­tion­al per­sons are in­volved in the pre­par­a­tion of the re­port, their names and the con­tri­bu­tion that they made to the pre­par­a­tion of the re­port must be spe­cified.

2 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may or­der the ex­pert re­port to be giv­en or­ally or that a writ­ten re­port be ex­plained or ad­ded to or­ally; in such an event, the reg­u­la­tions on wit­ness ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ings ap­ply.

Art. 188 Right of the parties to comment  

The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall no­ti­fy the parties of the con­tent of the writ­ten ex­pert re­port and al­low them time in which to com­ment there­on.

Art. 189 Additions and improvements to the report  

The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall ex of­fi­cio or at the re­quest of a party ar­range for the ex­pert re­port to be ad­ded to or im­proved by the same ex­pert wit­ness or shall ap­point ad­di­tion­al ex­pert wit­nesses if:

a.
the ex­pert re­port is in­com­plete or un­clear;
b.
two or more ex­pert wit­nesses di­verge con­sid­er­ably in their con­clu­sions; or
c.
there are doubts as to the ac­cur­acy of the ex­pert re­port.
Art. 190 Fees  

The ex­pert wit­ness is en­titled to an ap­pro­pri­ate fee.

Art. 191 Neglect of duty  

If an ex­pert wit­ness fails to ful­fil his ob­lig­a­tions or does not do so in time, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may:

a.
im­pose a fixed pen­alty fine;
b.
re­voke their in­struc­tions without pay­ing the ex­pert a fee for any work car­ried out.

Chapter 6 Material Evidence

Art. 192 Items of evidence  

1 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies shall add all items of evid­ence in their ori­gin­al form to the case file.

2 Cop­ies shall be made of of­fi­cial doc­u­ments and oth­er re­cords if this is suf­fi­cient for the pur­poses of the pro­ceed­ings. If ne­ces­sary, the cop­ies must be cer­ti­fied.

3 The parties may in­spect items of evid­ence in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions on the in­spec­tion of files.

Art. 193 Inspection  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the courts and, in minor cases, the po­lice shall make an on-site in­spec­tion of all items, loc­a­tions and pro­cesses that are im­port­ant in as­sess­ing the cir­cum­stances but which are not im­me­di­ately avail­able as items of evid­ence.

2 Every per­son con­cerned must tol­er­ate the in­spec­tion and al­low the par­ti­cipants the re­quired ac­cess.

3 If it is ne­ces­sary to enter houses, dwell­ings or oth­er premises that are not gen­er­ally ac­cess­ible, the au­thor­it­ies shall com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions ap­plic­able to the search of premises.

4 A re­cord shall be made of in­spec­tions by means of video or au­dio re­cord­ings, plans, draw­ings or de­scrip­tions, or by some oth­er meth­od.

5 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may or­der that:

a.
oth­er pro­ced­ur­al acts be re­lo­cated to the place where the in­spec­tion is be­ing car­ried out;
b.
the in­spec­tion is com­bined with a re­con­struc­tion of the crim­in­al act or with a con­front­a­tion hear­ing; in such an event, the ac­cused, the wit­nesses and the per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion are ob­liged to take part, sub­ject to their right to re­main si­lent.
Art. 194 Consultation of case files  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor and the courts shall con­sult files re­lat­ing to oth­er pro­ceed­ings if this is re­quired to prove the cir­cum­stances of the case or to as­sess the guilt of the ac­cused.

2 Ad­min­is­trat­ive and ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies shall make their files avail­able for in­spec­tion un­less there is an over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terest in pre­serving con­fid­en­ti­al­ity.

3 Con­flicts between au­thor­it­ies of the same can­ton shall be de­cided by the ob­jec­tions au­thor­ity of the can­ton con­cerned, and con­flicts between au­thor­it­ies of dif­fer­ent can­tons or between can­ton­al and fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies shall be de­cided by the Fed­er­al Crim­in­al Court.

Art. 195 Obtaining reports and information  

1 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies shall ob­tain of­fi­cial re­ports and med­ic­al cer­ti­fic­ates re­lat­ing to mat­ters that may be of sig­ni­fic­ance in the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings.

2 In or­der to es­tab­lish the per­son­al cir­cum­stances of the ac­cused, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor and courts in­form­a­tion shall ob­tain in­form­a­tion on the ac­cused's crim­in­al re­cord and repu­ta­tion and oth­er rel­ev­ant re­ports from pub­lic of­fices and mem­bers of the pub­lic.

Title 5 Compulsory Measures

Chapter 1 General Provisions

Art. 196 Definition  

Com­puls­ory meas­ures are pro­ced­ur­al acts car­ried out by the crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies that re­strict the fun­da­ment­al rights of the per­sons con­cerned and which serve:

a.
to se­cure evid­ence;
b.
to en­sure that per­sons at­tend the pro­ceed­ings;
c.
to guar­an­tee the ex­e­cu­tion of the fi­nal judg­ment.
Art. 197 Principles  

1 Com­puls­ory meas­ures may be taken only if:

a.
they are per­mit­ted by law;
b.
there is reas­on­able sus­pi­cion that an of­fence has been com­mit­ted;
c.
the aims can­not be achieved by less strin­gent meas­ures
d.
the ser­i­ous­ness of the of­fence jus­ti­fies the com­puls­ory meas­ure.

2 Par­tic­u­lar cau­tion must be taken when car­ry­ing out com­puls­ory meas­ures that re­strict the fun­da­ment­al rights of per­sons not ac­cused of an of­fence.

Art. 198 Competence  

1 Com­puls­ory meas­ures may be ordered by:

a.
the pub­lic pro­sec­utor;
b.
the courts, or in cases of ur­gency, their dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings;
c.
the po­lice in cases spe­cific­ally provided for by law.

2 The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons may re­strict the powers of the po­lice to or­der or carry out com­puls­ory meas­ures to po­lice of­ficers of a spe­cif­ic rank or func­tion.

Art. 199 Notice of the order  

Where a com­puls­ory meas­ure must be ordered in writ­ing and need not be kept secret, the per­sons dir­ectly con­cerned shall be giv­en a copy of the war­rant and of any re­cord re­lat­ing to its ex­e­cu­tion against con­firm­a­tion of re­ceipt.

Art. 200 Use of force  

Force may be used as a last re­sort when car­ry­ing out com­puls­ory meas­ures; any force used must be reas­on­able.

Chapter 2 Summonses, Enforced Appearances and Tracing of Wanted Persons or Property

Section 1 Summonses

Art. 201 Form and content  

1 A sum­mons shall be is­sued in writ­ing by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for pro­sec­ut­ing con­tra­ven­tions and the courts.

2 It con­tains:

a.
the name of the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity is­su­ing the sum­mons and the per­sons who will carry out the pro­ced­ur­al act;
b.
the name of the per­son summoned and the ca­pa­city in which it is in­ten­ded that per­son should par­ti­cip­ate in the pro­ced­ur­al act;
c.
the reas­on for the sum­mons if the aim of the in­vest­ig­a­tion per­mits such in­form­a­tion to be dis­closed;
d.
the place, date and time of ap­pear­ance;
e.
no­tice of the re­quire­ment to ap­pear per­son­ally;
f.
a cau­tion as to the leg­al con­sequences of the fail­ure to ap­pear without ex­cuse;
g.
the date on which the sum­mons was is­sued;
h.
the sig­na­ture of the per­son is­su­ing the sum­mons.
Art. 202 Time limit  

1 Sum­monses shall be served:

a.
in the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings: at least 3 days be­fore the pro­ced­ur­al act is due to take place;
b.
in pro­ceed­ings in court: at least 10 days be­fore the pro­ced­ur­al act is due to take place.

2 Pub­lic sum­monses shall be pub­lished at least one month be­fore the pro­ced­ur­al act is due to take place.

3 When de­cid­ing on the date of the pro­ced­ur­al act, ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count shall be taken of the avail­ab­il­ity of the per­sons be­ing summoned.

Art. 203 Exceptions  

1 A sum­mons may be is­sued in a form oth­er than that pre­scribed and sub­ject to short­er time lim­its:

a.
in cases of ur­gency; or
b.
with the con­sent the per­son be­ing summoned.

2 Any per­son who is present at the place of the pro­ced­ur­al act or in de­ten­tion may be ques­tioned im­me­di­ately and without the is­sue of a sum­mons.

Art. 204 Safe conduct  

1 If per­sons who are abroad must be summoned, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the per­sons con­duct­ing the court pro­ceed­ings may guar­an­tee their safe con­duct.

2 Per­sons who have been guar­an­teed safe con­duct may not be ar­res­ted or made sub­ject to oth­er meas­ures re­strict­ing their liberty in Switzer­land due to acts or con­vic­tions from the peri­od pri­or to their de­par­ture.

3 Safe con­duct may be sub­ject to con­di­tions. In this case, the per­sons con­cerned must be in­formed that the right to safe con­duct ex­pires if they fail to com­ply with the con­di­tions there­of.

Art. 205 Duty to appear, circumstances preventing appearance and failure to appear  

1 Any per­son summoned by a crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity must com­ply with the sum­mons.

2 Any per­son who is pre­ven­ted from com­ply­ing with a sum­mons must in­form the au­thor­ity is­su­ing the sum­mons im­me­di­ately; he or she must give reas­ons for his or her in­ab­il­ity to ap­pear and if pos­sible provide doc­u­ment­ary evid­ence there­of.

3 A sum­mons may be re­voked if there is good cause. The re­voc­a­tion of the sum­mons takes ef­fect when the per­son summoned has been in­formed there­of.

4 Any per­son who, without an ac­cept­able reas­on, fails to com­ply with a sum­mons from a pub­lic pro­sec­utor, au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for pro­sec­ut­ing con­tra­ven­tions or a court or who ap­pears late shall be li­able to a fixed pen­alty fine and may also be brought be­fore the au­thor­ity con­cerned by the po­lice.

5 The fore­go­ing para­graph does not ap­ply to the pro­vi­sions on pro­ceed­ings in ab­sen­tia.

Art. 206 Police summonses  

1 In the course of po­lice en­quir­ies, the po­lice may sum­mon per­sons for the pur­poses of ques­tion­ing, es­tab­lish­ing their iden­tity or for oth­er iden­ti­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures without the re­quire­ment to com­ply with spe­cial form­al­it­ies or time lim­its.

2 Any per­son who fails to com­ply with a po­lice sum­mons may be brought be­fore the au­thor­ity con­cerned on the basis of a war­rant is­sued by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor provided the per­son summoned has been is­sued with a writ­ten warn­ing that this meas­ure may be taken.

Section 2 Appearance enforced by the Police

Art. 207 Requirements and competence  

1 A per­son may be brought be­fore an au­thor­ity by the po­lice if:

a.
he or she has failed to com­ply with a sum­mons;
b.
there are spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions that he or she will not com­ply with a sum­mons;
c.
in pro­ceed­ings re­lat­ing to a felony or mis­de­mean­our, his or her im­me­di­ate ap­pear­ance is es­sen­tial in the in­terests of the pro­ced­ure;
d.
there is a strong sus­pi­cion that he or she has com­mit­ted a felony or mis­de­mean­our and there is reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds for the per­son's de­ten­tion.

2 An en­forced ap­pear­ance shall be ordered by the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings.

Art. 208 Form of the order  

1 An en­forced ap­pear­ance is ordered in the form of a writ­ten war­rant. In cases of ur­gency, it may be ordered or­ally; it must however be con­firmed sub­sequently in writ­ing.

2 The war­rant shall con­tain the same de­tails as a sum­mons and also the ex­press au­thor­isa­tion for the po­lice to use force and to enter build­ings, dwell­ings and oth­er spaces not gen­er­ally ac­cess­ible if this is ne­ces­sary in or­der to im­ple­ment the war­rant.

Art. 209 Procedure  

1 The po­lice shall make every ef­fort to pro­tect the per­sons con­cerned when ex­ecut­ing a war­rant for an en­forced ap­pear­ance.

2 They shall show the per­son con­cerned the war­rant for the en­forced ap­pear­ance and bring him or her be­fore the rel­ev­ant au­thor­ity im­me­di­ately or at the time spe­cified for the ap­pear­ance.

3 The au­thor­ity shall in­form the per­son con­cerned im­me­di­ately and in a lan­guage they can un­der­stand of the reas­on for the en­forced ap­pear­ance, carry out the pro­ced­ur­al act and re­lease the per­son im­me­di­ately there­after un­less the au­thor­ity is ap­ply­ing for his or her re­mand or pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion.

Section 3 Tracing of Wanted Persons or Property

Art. 210 Principles  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor, au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for pro­sec­ut­ing con­tra­ven­tions and courts may or­der the tra­cing of per­sons whose where­abouts are un­known and who are re­quired to ap­pear in the pro­ceed­ings. In cases of ur­gency, the po­lice may them­selves or­der that a wanted per­son be traced.

2 A war­rant may be is­sued for an ac­cused per­son to be ar­res­ted and brought be­fore the au­thor­it­ies if there is a strong sus­pi­cion that he or she has com­mit­ted a felony or mis­de­mean­our and there is reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds for the per­son's de­ten­tion.

3 Un­less the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for pro­sec­ut­ing con­tra­ven­tions or the court or­ders oth­er­wise, the po­lice are re­spons­ible for tra­cing wanted per­sons.

4 Para­graphs 1 and 3 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the tra­cing of prop­erty.

Art. 211 Assistance from the public  

1 The pub­lic may be re­ques­ted to as­sist in tra­cing wanted per­sons or prop­erty.

2 The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons may is­sue pro­vi­sions in ac­cord­ance with which mem­bers of the pub­lic may be re­war­ded for as­sist­ing in the suc­cess­ful tra­cing of wanted per­sons or prop­erty.

Chapter 3 Deprivation of Liberty, Remand and Preventive Detention

Section 1 General Provisions

Art. 212 Principles  

1 An ac­cused per­son shall re­main at liberty. He or she may be sub­jec­ted to com­puls­ory meas­ures in­volving depriva­tion of liberty only in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of this Code.

2 Com­puls­ory meas­ures in­volving depriva­tion of liberty must be re­voked as soon as:

a.
their re­quire­ments are no longer ful­filled;
b.
the term of the meas­ure spe­cified by this Code or by a court has ex­pired; or
c.
al­tern­at­ive meas­ures achieve the same pur­pose.

3 Re­mand and pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion may not be of longer dur­a­tion than the an­ti­cip­ated cus­todi­al sen­tence.

Art. 213 Access to premises  

1 If it is ne­ces­sary to enter houses, dwell­ings or oth­er rooms that are not gen­er­ally ac­cess­ible in or­der to stop or ar­rest a per­son, the pro­vi­sions on search­ing premises must be com­plied with.

2 If there is a risk in any delay, the po­lice may enter premises without a search war­rant.

Art. 214 Notification  

1 If a per­son is ar­res­ted, or placed on re­mand or in pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion, the rel­ev­ant crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity shall im­me­di­ately no­ti­fy:

a.
his or her next-of-kin;
b.
if so re­ques­ted, his or her em­ploy­er or the rel­ev­ant em­bassy or con­su­late.

2 No no­ti­fic­a­tion shall be giv­en if this is pre­cluded by the pur­pose of the in­vest­ig­a­tion or the per­son con­cerned ex­pressly so re­quests.

3 Where an ar­res­ted per­son is sub­ject to a com­puls­ory meas­ure in­volving the depriva­tion of his or her liberty and a de­pend­ant suf­fers dif­fi­culties as a res­ult, the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy the rel­ev­ant so­cial ser­vices au­thor­it­ies.

4 The vic­tim shall be in­formed of the ac­cused be­ing placed in or re­leased from re­mand or pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion, the or­der­ing of an al­tern­at­ive meas­ure un­der Art­icle 237 para­graph 2 let­ter c or g, or if the ac­cused ab­sconds, un­less he or she has ex­pressly re­ques­ted not to be in­formed.69 Such in­form­a­tion may not be provided if it would ex­pose the ac­cused to a ser­i­ous danger.

69 Amended by An­nex No 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 20128819).

Section 2 Police Powers to Stop and of Pursuit

Art. 215 Police power to stop  

1 For the pur­pose of in­vest­ig­at­ing an of­fence, the po­lice may stop a per­son and if ne­ces­sary bring that per­son to the po­lice sta­tion in or­der to:

a.
es­tab­lish the per­son's iden­tity;
b.
ques­tion the per­son briefly;
c.
es­tab­lish wheth­er he or she has com­mit­ted an of­fence;
d.
es­tab­lish wheth­er the per­son or prop­erty in his or her pos­ses­sion is be­ing traced.

2 They may re­quire the per­son they have stopped to:

a.
provide their per­son­al de­tails;
b.
pro­duce iden­tity doc­u­ments;
c.
pro­duce prop­erty in his or her pos­ses­sion;
d.
open con­tain­ers or vehicles.

3 They may re­quest mem­bers of the pub­lic to as­sist them to stop per­sons.

4 If there are spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions that an of­fence is be­ing com­mit­ted or per­sons sus­pec­ted of an of­fence are loc­ated at a spe­cif­ic place, the po­lice may cor­don off the loc­a­tion and stop the per­son loc­ated there.

Art. 216 Pursuit  

1 The po­lice are en­titled in cases of ur­gency to pur­sue and stop a sus­pect on the ter­rit­ory of an­oth­er com­mune, an­oth­er can­ton and, if in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments so per­mit, an­oth­er coun­try.

2 If the per­son stopped is then ar­res­ted, he or she shall be handed over im­me­di­ately to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at the place where he or she was stopped.

Section 3 Arrest

Art. 217 By the police  

1 The po­lice are ob­liged to ar­rest a per­son and bring that per­son to the po­lice sta­tion if:

a.
they have caught the per­son in the act of com­mit­ting a felony or mis­de­mean­our or they have en­countered him or her im­me­di­ately after com­mit­ting such an of­fence;
b.
the per­son is sub­ject to an ar­rest war­rant.

2 They may ar­rest a per­son and bring him or her to the po­lice sta­tion if, based on en­quir­ies or oth­er re­li­able in­form­a­tion, the per­son is sus­pec­ted of com­mit­ting a felony or mis­de­mean­our.

3 They may ar­rest a per­son and bring him or her to the po­lice sta­tion if they have caught the per­son in the act of com­mit­ting a con­tra­ven­tion or they have en­countered him or her im­me­di­ately after com­mit­ting such an of­fence in the event that:

a.
the per­son re­fuses to provide his or her per­son­al de­tails;
b.
the per­son does not live in Switzer­land and fails to provide se­cur­ity for pay­ment of the an­ti­cip­ated fine im­me­di­ately;
c.
the ar­rest is ne­ces­sary in or­der to pre­vent the per­son from com­mit­ting fur­ther con­tra­ven­tions.
Art. 218 By private individuals  

1 Where there is in­suf­fi­cient time to ob­tain po­lice as­sist­ance, mem­bers of the pub­lic have the right to ar­rest a per­son if:

a.
they have caught the per­son in the act of com­mit­ting a felony or mis­de­mean­our or they have en­countered him or her im­me­di­ately after com­mit­ting such an of­fence; or
b.
the pub­lic have been re­ques­ted to as­sist in tra­cing of the per­son con­cerned.

2 When mak­ing an ar­rest, private in­di­vidu­als may only use force in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 200.

3 Ar­res­ted per­sons must be handed over to the po­lice as quickly as pos­sible.

Art. 219 Police procedure  

1 The po­lice shall es­tab­lish the iden­tity of the ar­res­ted per­son im­me­di­ately after the ar­rest, in­form him or her of the reas­on for the ar­rest in a lan­guage the per­son can un­der­stand and cau­tion the per­son as to his or her rights with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 158. There­after, they shall in­form the pub­lic pro­sec­utor im­me­di­ately of the ar­rest.

2 They shall then ques­tion the ar­res­ted per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 159 on the sus­pec­ted of­fences and carry out ap­pro­pri­ate in­vest­ig­a­tions im­me­di­ately in or­der to sub­stan­ti­ate or re­but the al­leg­a­tions and any oth­er grounds for de­ten­tion.

3 If in­vest­ig­a­tions re­veal that there are no grounds for de­ten­tion or such reas­ons no longer ap­ply, they shall re­lease the ar­res­ted per­son im­me­di­ately. If the in­vest­ig­a­tions con­firm the sus­pi­cions and any grounds for de­ten­tion, they shall hand the per­son over to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor im­me­di­ately.

4 Re­lease or han­dover shall in any case take place at the latest with­in 24 hours; if the per­son was stopped be­fore the ar­rest, then the peri­od while stopped shall be taken in­to ac­count when cal­cu­lat­ing the time lim­it.

5 If the po­lice have pro­vi­sion­ally ar­res­ted a per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 217 para­graph 3, the per­son may only be held for more than 3 hours if a cor­res­pond­ing or­der is giv­en by a po­lice of­ficer au­thor­ised to do so by the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­ton.

Section 4 Remand and Preventive Detention: General Provisions

Art. 220 Definitions  

1 Re­mand be­gins when it is ordered by the com­puls­ory meas­ures court and ends with the re­ceipt by the court of first in­stance of the in­dict­ment, the ac­cel­er­ated com­mence­ment of a cus­todi­al sanc­tion or with the ac­cused's re­lease dur­ing the in­vest­ig­a­tion.

2 Pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion is the peri­od of de­ten­tion between the time of re­ceipt by the court of first in­stance of the in­dict­ment and the is­sue of a fi­nal judg­ment, the com­mence­ment of a cus­todi­al sanc­tion, the en­force­ment of an ex­pul­sion or­der, or the ac­cused's re­lease.70

70 Amended by An­nex No 5 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. 221 Requirements  

1 Re­mand and pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion are only per­mit­ted if there is a strong sus­pi­cion that the ac­cused has com­mit­ted a felony or mis­de­mean­our and there is a ser­i­ous con­cern that the ac­cused:

a.
will evade crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings or the an­ti­cip­ated sanc­tion by ab­scond­ing;
b.
will in­flu­ence people or tamper with evid­ence in or­der to com­prom­ise ef­forts to es­tab­lish the truth; or
c.
will pose a con­sid­er­able risk to the safety of oth­ers by com­mit­ting ser­i­ous felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours as he or she has already com­mit­ted sim­il­ar of­fences.

2 De­ten­tion is also per­mit­ted if there is ser­i­ous con­cern that a per­son will carry out a threat to com­mit a ser­i­ous felony.

Art. 222 Appellate remedies 71  

A de­tain­ee may con­test de­cisions or­der­ing, ex­tend­ing or end­ing his or her re­mand or pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion be­fore the ob­jec­tions au­thor­ity, sub­ject to Art­icle 233.

71 Amended by An­nex No II 7 of the Crim­in­al Justice Au­thor­it­ies Act of 19 March 2010, in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 3267; BBl 2008 8125).

Art. 223 Communications with the defence in detention proceedings  

1 The de­fence agent may be present in de­ten­tion pro­ceed­ings when the ac­cused is in­ter­viewed or when oth­er evid­ence is be­ing gathered.

2 The ac­cused may at any time com­mu­nic­ate privately with his or her de­fence agent in writ­ing or or­ally in pro­ceed­ings be­fore the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the courts re­lat­ing to de­ten­tion.

Section 5 Remand

Art. 224 Remand proceedings before the public prosecutor  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall ques­tion the ac­cused im­me­di­ately and give the ac­cused the op­por­tun­ity to make a state­ment re­gard­ing the sus­pec­ted of­fence and the grounds for re­mand. It shall im­me­di­ately re­cord all evid­ence that may sub­stan­ti­ate or re­but the sus­pi­cions and the grounds for de­ten­tion provided such evid­ence is read­ily avail­able.

2 If the sus­pi­cions and the grounds for re­mand are con­firmed, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall im­me­di­ately ap­ply to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court, but at the latest with­in 48 hours of the ar­rest, for the ac­cused to be re­manded or for an al­tern­at­ive meas­ure. It shall file its ap­plic­a­tion in writ­ing, with a brief state­ment of reas­ons and the most rel­ev­ant files.

3 If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor de­cides against ap­ply­ing for re­mand, it shall or­der the ac­cused's im­me­di­ate re­lease. If it ap­plies for an al­tern­at­ive meas­ure, it shall take the re­quired pre­vent­ive meas­ures.

Art. 225 Detention proceedings before the compulsory measures court  

1 On re­ceipt of the ap­plic­a­tion from the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall im­me­di­ately ar­range a private hear­ing with the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the ac­cused and his or her de­fence agent; it may re­quire the pub­lic pro­sec­utor to par­ti­cip­ate.

2 If so re­ques­ted, it shall per­mit the ac­cused and the de­fence to in­spect the files in its pos­ses­sion be­fore the hear­ing.

3 Any per­son who is per­mit­ted not to at­tend the hear­ing may sub­mit ap­plic­a­tions in writ­ing or make ref­er­ence to earli­er sub­mis­sions.

4 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall gath­er all the im­me­di­ately avail­able evid­ence that may sub­stan­ti­ate or re­but the sus­pi­cions or the grounds for de­ten­tion.

5 If the ac­cused ex­pressly waives the right to a hear­ing, the com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall de­cide in writ­ten pro­ceed­ings on the basis of the ap­plic­a­tion made by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor and the sub­mis­sions made by the ac­cused.

Art. 226 Decision of the compulsory measures court  

1 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court de­cides im­me­di­ately, but at the latest with­in 48 hours of re­ceipt of the ap­plic­a­tion.

2 It shall give im­me­di­ate no­tice of its de­cision to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the ac­cused and his or her de­fence law­yer or­ally, or, if they are ab­sent, in writ­ing. It shall then provide them with a brief writ­ten state­ment of the grounds.

3 If it or­ders the ac­cused to be re­manded, it shall in­form the ac­cused that he or she may file an ap­plic­a­tion for re­lease from re­mand at any time.

4 In its de­cision it may:

a.
stip­u­late a max­im­um term for re­mand;
b.
in­struct the pub­lic pro­sec­utor to carry out spe­cif­ic in­vest­ig­at­ive activ­it­ies;
c.
or­der al­tern­at­ive meas­ures to re­mand.

5 If it de­cides not to or­der the ac­cused to be re­manded, the ac­cused shall be re­leased im­me­di­ately.

Art. 227 Application to extend the period of remand  

1 If the peri­od on re­mand ordered by the com­puls­ory meas­ures court ex­pires, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor may file an ap­plic­a­tion to ex­tend the peri­od of re­mand. If the com­puls­ory meas­ures court has not lim­ited the peri­od of re­mand, the ap­plic­a­tion must be filed be­fore the ac­cused has spent 3 months on re­mand.

2 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall file a writ­ten ap­plic­a­tion stat­ing the grounds with the com­puls­ory meas­ures court 4 days at the latest be­fore the ex­piry of the peri­od of re­mand, to­geth­er with the most rel­ev­ant files.

3 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall give the ac­cused and his or her de­fence law­yer the op­por­tun­ity to in­spect the files in its pos­ses­sion and to re­spond to the ap­plic­a­tion in writ­ing with­in 3 days.

4 It may or­der the pro­vi­sion­al con­tinu­ation of re­mand pending its de­cision.

5 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall de­cide at the latest with­in 5 days of re­ceipt of the re­sponse or the ex­piry of the time lim­it men­tioned in para­graph 3 above. It may in­struct the pub­lic pro­sec­utor to carry out spe­cif­ic in­vest­ig­at­ive activ­it­ies, or or­der an al­tern­at­ive meas­ure.

6 The pro­ceed­ings are nor­mally con­duc­ted in writ­ing, but the com­puls­ory meas­ures court may or­der a hear­ing, which shall be held in private.

7 An ex­ten­sion of the peri­od on re­mand may be gran­ted for a max­im­um of 3 months, or in ex­cep­tion­al cases for a max­im­um of 6 months.

Art. 228 Application for release from remand  

1 The ac­cused may ap­ply to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor at any time in writ­ing or or­ally on re­cord for re­lease from re­mand, sub­ject to para­graph 5 be­low. The ap­plic­a­tion must be ac­com­pan­ied by a brief state­ment of grounds.

2 If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor grants the ap­plic­a­tion, it shall re­lease the ac­cused from re­mand im­me­di­ately. If it does not wish to grant the ap­plic­a­tion, it shall pass the same to­geth­er with the files no later than 3 days after re­ceipt to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court ac­com­pan­ied by a state­ment of its opin­ion.

3 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall send the opin­ion to the ac­cused and his or her de­fence law­yer and al­low them 3 days to re­spond.

4 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall de­cide at the latest with­in 5 days of re­ceiv­ing the re­sponse or of the ex­piry of the time lim­it men­tioned in para­graph 3 above. If the ac­cused ex­pressly waives the right to a hear­ing, the de­cision may be is­sued in writ­ten pro­ceed­ings. Art­icle 226 para­graphs 2–5 also ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

5 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court may in its de­cision spe­cify a time lim­it of a max­im­um of one month with­in which the ac­cused is not per­mit­ted to file a fur­ther ap­plic­a­tion for re­lease.

Section 6 Preventive Detention

Art. 229 Decision to order preventive detention  

1 In cases where the ac­cused has already been on re­mand, an ap­plic­a­tion for pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion is filed in writ­ing by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor and the de­cision on wheth­er to or­der pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion is taken by the com­puls­ory meas­ures court.

2 Where grounds for de­ten­tion arise only after charges have been brought, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings in the court of first in­stance shall con­duct de­ten­tion pro­ceed­ings in ana­log­ous ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 224 and shall re­quest the com­puls­ory meas­ures court to or­der pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion.

3 The pro­ceed­ings be­fore the com­puls­ory meas­ures court are gov­erned by:

a.
Art­icles 225 and 226 mu­tatis mutandis where the ac­cused has not been on re­mand;
b.
Art­icle 227 mu­tatis mutandis where the ac­cused has already been on re­mand.
Art. 230 Release from preventive detention during the proceedings before the court of first instance  

1 The ac­cused and the pub­lic pro­sec­utor may file an ap­plic­a­tion for re­lease from de­ten­tion dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings be­fore the court of first in­stance.

2 The ap­plic­a­tion must be sub­mit­ted to the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings in the court of first in­stance.

3 If the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings grants the ap­plic­a­tion, he or she shall re­lease the ac­cused from de­ten­tion im­me­di­ately. If the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings does not wish to grant the ap­plic­a­tion, it shall be passed on to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court for a de­cision to be made.

4 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings in the court of first in­stance may also or­der the ac­cused to be re­leased from de­ten­tion provided the pub­lic pro­sec­utor con­sents. If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor does not con­sent, the com­puls­ory meas­ures court de­cides.

5 The pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 228 also ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

Art. 231 Preventive detention following the judgment of the court of first instance  

1 The court of first in­stance shall de­cide in its judg­ment wheth­er a per­son con­victed should be placed or should re­main in pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion:

a.
in or­der to en­sure that a sen­tence or meas­ure is duly ex­ecuted;
b.
with a view to ap­pel­late pro­ceed­ings.

2 If an ac­cused in de­ten­tion is ac­quit­ted and the court of first in­stance or­ders his or her re­lease, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor may ap­ply to the court of first in­stance for the dir­ect­or of ap­pel­late pro­ceed­ings to or­der the con­tinu­ation of pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion. In such a case, the per­son con­cerned shall re­main in de­ten­tion un­til the dir­ect­or of ap­pel­late pro­ceed­ings makes a de­cision. The dir­ect­or of ap­pel­late pro­ceed­ings shall de­cide on the ap­plic­a­tion made by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor with­in 5 days of the ap­plic­a­tion be­ing filed.

3 If the ob­jec­tions with­drawn, the court of first in­stance shall de­cide on how the peri­od spent in de­ten­tion fol­low­ing the judg­ment will be taken in­to ac­count.

Art. 232 Preventive detention during proceedings before the court of appeal  

1 If grounds for de­ten­tion arise only dur­ing pro­ceed­ings be­fore the court of ap­peal, the dir­ect­or of ap­pel­late pro­ceed­ings shall or­der the per­son to be placed in de­ten­tion to be brought be­fore the court im­me­di­ately in or­der to be heard.

2 A de­cision shall be made with­in 48 hours of the hear­ing; their de­cision is fi­nal.

Art. 233 Application for release from detention during proceedings before the court of appeal  

The dir­ect­or of ap­pel­late pro­ceed­ings shall de­cide on an ap­plic­a­tion for re­lease from de­ten­tion with­in 5 days; the de­cision is fi­nal.

Section 7 Execution of Remand and Preventive Detention

Art. 234 Detention centre  

1 Re­mand and pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion is nor­mally car­ried out in de­ten­tion centres re­served for this pur­pose and which are oth­er­wise used only for the ex­e­cu­tion of short cus­todi­al sen­tences.

2 If it is ad­vis­able for med­ic­al reas­ons, the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­ity may ar­range for the de­tain­ee to be ad­mit­ted to a hos­pit­al or psy­chi­at­ric hos­pit­al.

Art. 235 Conditions of detention  

1 The de­tain­ee's per­son­al free­dom may not be more strictly lim­ited than is re­quired for the pur­pose of de­ten­tion or for or­der and se­cur­ity in the de­ten­tion centre.

2 Con­tact between the de­tain­ee and oth­er per­sons re­quires au­thor­isa­tion from the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings. Vis­its shall if ne­ces­sary be su­per­vised.

3 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall in­spect in­com­ing and out­go­ing post, with the ex­cep­tion of cor­res­pond­ence with the su­per­vis­ory and crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies. Dur­ing pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may del­eg­ate this task to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

4 The de­tain­ee may com­mu­nic­ate freely with his or her de­fence agent without the con­tent of com­mu­nic­a­tions be­ing in­spec­ted. If there is jus­ti­fied sus­pi­cion that this right is be­ing ab­used, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may with ap­prov­al of the com­puls­ory meas­ures court re­strict free com­mu­nic­a­tion for a lim­ited peri­od, provided pri­or no­tice is giv­en to the de­tain­ee and the de­fence agent of the re­stric­tions.

5 The can­tons shall reg­u­late the rights and ob­lig­a­tions of per­sons in cus­tody, their rights to leg­al re­dress, dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures and the su­per­vi­sion of de­ten­tion centres.

Art. 236 Accelerated execution of sentences and measures  

1 The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may au­thor­ise the ac­cused to be­gin a cus­todi­al sen­tence or cus­todi­al meas­ure in ad­vance of the an­ti­cip­ated date, provided the status of the pro­ceed­ings per­mit this.

2 If the charges have already been filed, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall con­sult the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

3 The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons may provide that the ex­e­cu­tion of a meas­ure in ad­vance of the an­ti­cip­ated date re­quires the con­sent of the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for its ex­e­cu­tion.

4 On ad­mis­sion to a pen­al in­sti­tu­tion, the ac­cused be­gins his or her sen­tence or meas­ure; from this point the ac­cused is gov­erned by the rel­ev­ant re­gime un­less this con­flicts with the pur­pose of the ac­cused's re­mand or pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion.

Section 8 Alternative Measures

Art. 237 General Provisions  

1 The rel­ev­ant court shall or­der one or more le­ni­ent meas­ures in­stead of re­mand or pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion if such meas­ures achieve the same res­ult as de­ten­tion.

2 Al­tern­at­ive meas­ures in­clude in par­tic­u­lar:

a.
the pay­ment of money bail;
b.
the sur­ren­der­ing of a pass­port or iden­tity pa­pers;
c.
the re­quire­ment to stay or not to stay in a spe­cif­ic place or in a spe­cif­ic house;
d.
the re­quire­ment to re­port to a pub­lic of­fice at reg­u­larly in­ter­vals;
e.
the re­quire­ment to do a reg­u­lar job;
f.
the re­quire­ment to un­der­go med­ic­al treat­ment or a med­ic­al ex­am­in­a­tion;
g.
the pro­hib­i­tion of mak­ing con­tact with spe­cif­ic per­sons.

3 In or­der to mon­it­or such al­tern­at­ive meas­ures, the court may or­der the use of tech­nic­al devices and that they be se­curely fastened to the per­son be­ing mon­itored.

4 The or­der­ing of al­tern­at­ive meas­ures and ap­peals against such meas­ures are gov­erned mu­tatis mutandis by the reg­u­la­tions on re­mand and pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion.

5 The court may re­voke the al­tern­at­ive meas­ures at any time, or or­der oth­er al­tern­at­ive meas­ures or the ac­cused's re­mand or pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion if new cir­cum­stances so re­quire or if the ac­cused fails to ful­fil the re­quire­ments stip­u­lated.

Art. 238 Payment of money bail  

1 Where there is a risk that the ac­cused may ab­scond, the rel­ev­ant court may or­der pay­ment of a sum of money in or­der to en­sure that the ac­cused ap­pears for all pro­ced­ur­al acts or to be­gin a cus­todi­al sanc­tion.

2 The amount of the bail pay­ment is as­sessed on the basis of the ser­i­ous­ness of the of­fences of which the ac­cused is sus­pec­ted and of the ac­cused's per­son­al cir­cum­stances.

3 The pay­ment of money bail may be made in cash or by means of a guar­an­tee is­sued by a bank or in­sur­ance com­pany per­man­ently es­tab­lished in Switzer­land.

Art. 239 Return of the bail payment  

1 The bail pay­ment shall be re­turned if:

a.
the grounds for de­ten­tion no longer ap­ply;
b.
the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings are con­cluded by a fi­nal judg­ment of aban­don­ment or ac­quit­tal;
c.
the ac­cused has be­gun a cus­todi­al sanc­tion.

2 Be­fore the bail pay­ment made by the ac­cused is re­turned, any mon­et­ary pen­al­ties, fines, costs and dam­ages that have been im­posed on the ac­cused may be de­duc­ted from it.

3 The au­thor­ity be­fore which the case is pending or was last pending shall de­cide on the re­turn of the bail pay­ment.

Art. 240 Forfeiture of the bail payment  

1 If the ac­cused ab­sconds dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings or the ex­e­cu­tion of a cus­todi­al sanc­tion, the bail pay­ment shall be for­feited to the Con­fed­er­a­tion or to the can­ton whose court ordered the same.

2 If a third party made the bail pay­ment, the for­feit­ure may be waived if the third party provides the au­thor­it­ies with in­form­a­tion in good time to en­able the ac­cused to be ap­pre­hen­ded.

3 The au­thor­ity be­fore which the case is pending or was last pending shall de­cide on the for­feit­ure of the bail pay­ment.

4 A for­feited bail pay­ment shall be used in ana­log­ous ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 73 SCC72 to cov­er the claims of per­sons suf­fer­ing harm and, if a sur­plus re­mains, to cov­er the mon­et­ary pen­al­ties, fines and the pro­ced­ur­al costs. Any sur­plus still re­main­ing shall pass to the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­ton.

Chapter 4 Searches and Examinations

Section 1 General Provisions

Art. 241 Authorisation  

1 Searches shall be au­thor­ised by writ­ten war­rant. In cases of ur­gency, they may be au­thor­ised or­ally, but this must be con­firmed sub­sequently in writ­ing.

2 The war­rant shall in­dic­ate:

a.
the per­sons, premises, prop­erty or re­cords to be searched;
b.
the pur­pose of the meas­ure;
c.
the au­thor­it­ies or per­sons au­thor­ised to con­duct the meas­ure.

3 If there is a risk in any delay, the po­lice may au­thor­ise the manu­al search of body ori­fices and body cav­it­ies and carry out searches without a war­rant; they shall in­form com­pet­ent crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity about the search im­me­di­ately.

4 The po­lice may search a per­son who has been stopped or ar­res­ted per­son, in par­tic­u­lar in or­der to guar­an­tee the safety of oth­er per­sons.

Art. 242 Conduct of searches  

1 The au­thor­it­ies or per­sons car­ry­ing out the search shall take suit­able safety pre­cau­tions in or­der to achieve the aim of the meas­ure.

2 They may pro­hib­it per­sons from leav­ing dur­ing a search.

Art. 243 Accidental finds  

1 Evid­ence or prop­erty found that is not con­nec­ted with the of­fence un­der in­vest­ig­a­tion but which ap­pears to re­late to a dif­fer­ent of­fence shall be se­cured.

2 The prop­erty shall be handed over with a re­port there­on to the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings, who shall de­cide on the fur­ther course of ac­tion.

Section 2 Searches of Premises

Art. 244 Principle  

1 Houses, dwell­ings and oth­er rooms not gen­er­ally ac­cess­ible may only be searched with the con­sent the pro­pri­et­or.

2 The pro­pri­et­or's con­sent is not re­quired if it is sus­pec­ted that on the premises:

a.
there are wanted per­sons;
b.
there is forensic evid­ence or prop­erty or as­sets that must be seized;
c.
of­fences are be­ing com­mit­ted.
Art. 245 Conduct of searches  

1 The per­sons au­thor­ised to carry out the search shall pro­duce the search war­rant at the start of the search.

2 Pro­pri­et­ors of premises be­ing searched who are present must re­main on the premises dur­ing the search. If they are ab­sent, if pos­sible an adult fam­ily mem­ber or an­oth­er suit­able per­son must re­main present.

Section 3 Search of Records and Recordings

Art. 246 Principle  

Doc­u­ments, au­dio, video and oth­er re­cord­ings, data car­ri­ers and equip­ment for pro­cessing and stor­ing in­form­a­tion may be searched if it is sus­pec­ted that they con­tain in­form­a­tion that is li­able to seizure.

Art. 247 Conduct  

1 The pro­pri­et­or may com­ment be­fore a search on the con­tent of re­cords and re­cord­ings.

2 Ex­perts may be called in to ex­am­ine the con­tent of re­cords and re­cord­ings, and in par­tic­u­lar to identi­fy re­cords and re­cord­ings with pro­tec­ted con­tent.

3 The pro­pri­et­or may provide the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity with cop­ies of re­cords and re­cord­ings and prin­touts of stored in­form­a­tion if this is suf­fi­cient for the pur­pose of the pro­ceed­ings.

Art. 248 Sealing of evidence  

1 Re­cords and prop­erty that ac­cord­ing to the pro­pri­et­or may not be searched or seized due to the right to re­main si­lent or to re­fuse to testi­fy or for oth­er reas­ons must be sealed and may neither be in­spec­ted nor used by the crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies.

2 Un­less the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity files a re­quest for the re­mov­al of the seals with­in 20 days, the sealed re­cords and prop­erty shall be re­turned to the pro­pri­et­or.

3 If it files a re­quest for the re­mov­al of the seals, the fol­low­ing courts shall is­sue a fi­nal judg­ment there­on with­in a month:

a.
in pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings: the com­puls­ory meas­ures court;
b.
in oth­er cases: the court be­fore which the case is pending.

4 The court may call in an ex­pert to ex­am­ine the con­tent of re­cords and prop­erty.

Section 4 Searches of Persons and Property

Art. 249 Principle  

Per­sons and prop­erty may only be searched without con­sent if it is sus­pec­ted that forensic evid­ence or prop­erty or as­sets that must be seized may be found.

Art. 250 Conduct  

1 Search­ing per­sons in­cludes the ex­am­in­a­tion of cloth­ing, items car­ried by the per­son con­cerned, con­tain­ers and vehicles, the sur­face of the body and vis­ible body ori­fices and body cav­it­ies.

2 Searches of a per­son's gen­it­al area shall be car­ried out by a per­son of the same gender or by a doc­tor, un­less the meas­ure can­not be delayed.

Section 5 Examination of Persons

Art. 251 Principle  

1 An ex­am­in­a­tion of a per­son in­cludes an ex­am­in­a­tion of their phys­ic­al or men­tal con­di­tion.

2 The ac­cused may be ques­tioned in or­der to:

a.
es­tab­lish the facts of the case;
b.
es­tab­lish wheth­er the he or she had the men­tal ca­pa­city to be held crim­in­ally li­able, is fit to plead and to with­stand de­ten­tion.

3 In­ter­ven­tions in the phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of the ac­cused may be ordered provided they do not cause par­tic­u­lar pain or any risk to health.

4 Ex­am­in­a­tions and in­ter­ven­tions in the phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of per­sons oth­er than the ac­cused are only per­mit­ted without con­sent if they are es­sen­tial in or­der to prop­erly in­vest­ig­ate an of­fence un­der Art­icles 111–113, 122, 124, 140, 184, 185, 187, 189, 190 or 191 SCC73.74

73 SR 311.0

74 Amended by No III of the FA of 30 Sept. 2011, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2012 (AS 2012 2575; BBl 2010 56515677).

Art. 252 Conduct of physical examinations  

Ex­am­in­a­tions of per­sons and in­ter­ven­tions in their phys­ic­al in­teg­rity shall be car­ried out by a doc­tor or an­oth­er med­ic­al spe­cial­ist.

Section 6 Examination of Dead Bodies

Art. 253 Unnatural deaths  

1 If there are in­dic­a­tions that a death did not oc­cur nat­ur­ally, and in par­tic­u­lar in­dic­a­tions of an of­fence, or if the body is uniden­ti­fied, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall or­der an in­spec­tion of the body to be car­ried out by a spe­cial­ist doc­tor in or­der to es­tab­lish the cause of death or to identi­fy the body.

2 If, after the in­spec­tion of the body, there is no evid­ence that an of­fence has been com­mit­ted and if iden­tity is es­tab­lished, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall re­lease the body for the fu­ner­al.

3 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall oth­er­wise or­der the body to be se­cured and fur­ther tests, and if ne­ces­sary an autopsy to be car­ried out by an in­sti­tute for forensic medi­cine. It may or­der the body or parts there­of to be re­tained for as long as re­quired for the pur­pose of the in­vest­ig­a­tion.

4 The can­tons shall de­cide per­sons in the med­ic­al pro­fes­sion are re­quired to re­port un­nat­ur­al deaths to the crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies.

Art. 254 Exhumation  

If it ap­pears ne­ces­sary in for the prop­er in­vest­ig­a­tion of an of­fence, the ex­huma­tion of a body or the open­ing of an urn con­tain­ing its ashes may be ordered.

Chapter 5 DNA Analyses

Art. 255 General requirements  

1 In or­der to in­vest­ig­ate a felony or a mis­de­mean­our, a sample may be taken to cre­ate a DNA pro­file from:

a.
the ac­cused;
b.
oth­er per­sons, in par­tic­u­lar vic­tims or per­sons en­titled to be present at the place of com­mis­sion, in­so­far as this is ne­ces­sary to dis­tin­guish their bio­lo­gic­al ma­ter­i­al from that of the ac­cused;
c.
de­ceased per­sons;
d.
bio­lo­gic­al ma­ter­i­al rel­ev­ant to the of­fence.

2 The po­lice may or­der:

a.
a sample to be taken from per­sons by non-in­vas­ive meth­ods;
b.
the cre­ation of a DNA pro­file from bio­lo­gic­al ma­ter­i­al rel­ev­ant to the of­fence.
Art. 256 Mass testing  

In an in­vest­ig­a­tion in­to a felony, the com­puls­ory meas­ures court may at the re­quest of the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or­der that samples be taken to cre­ate DNA pro­files from per­sons who dis­play spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter­ist­ics es­tab­lished as be­ing rel­ev­ant to the com­mis­sion of the of­fence.

Art. 257 Convicted persons  

The court may in its judg­ment or­der that a sample be taken to cre­ate a DNA pro­file from per­sons who:

a.
have re­ceived a cus­todi­al sen­tence of more than a year on be­ing con­victed of a wil­fully com­mit­ted felony;
b.
have been con­victed of a wil­fully com­mit­ted felony or mis­de­mean­our against life and limb or against sexu­al in­teg­rity;
c.
have been ordered to un­der­go a thera­peut­ic meas­ure or the in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion.
Art. 258 Taking samples  

Where in­vas­ive meth­ods are used to take samples, the sample shall be taken by a doc­tor or an­oth­er med­ic­al spe­cial­ist.

Art. 259 Application of the DNA Profiling Act  

The DNA Pro­fil­ing Act of 20 June 200375 also ap­plies.

Chapter 6 Recording Identification Data, Handwriting and Voice Samples

Art. 260 Recording identification data  

1 When re­cord­ing iden­ti­fic­a­tion data, the phys­ic­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of a per­son shall be noted and prints taken of parts of the body.

2 The po­lice, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor and the courts, or in cases of ur­gency the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may or­der the re­cord­ing of identi­fy­ing data.

3 The re­cord­ing of identi­fy­ing data shall be ordered in a writ­ten war­rant, with a brief state­ment of the reas­ons. In cases of ur­gency, it may be ordered or­ally, but must sub­sequently be con­firmed and ex­plained in writ­ing.

4 If the per­son con­cerned re­fuses to ac­cept the po­lice or­der, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall de­cide.

Art. 261 Retention and use of identifying documents  

1 Doc­u­ments that identi­fy the ac­cused may be re­tained out­side the case file for the fol­low­ing peri­ods and, in the event of a reas­on­able sus­pi­cion that a new of­fence has been com­mit­ted may also be used:

a.
in the event of the ac­cused's con­vic­tion or his or her ac­quit­tal on the grounds that he or she not leg­ally re­spons­ible due to a men­tal dis­order: un­til the ex­piry the time lim­its for the re­mov­al of the rel­ev­ant entry from the re­gister of crim­in­al con­vic­tions;
b.
in the event of ac­quit­tal on oth­er grounds, the aban­don­ment of the pro­ceed­ings or a de­cision to not to bring pro­ceed­ings: un­til the de­cision be­comes leg­ally bind­ing.

2 If it is an­ti­cip­ated in a case un­der para­graph 1 let­ter b due to cer­tain mat­ters that doc­u­ments identi­fy­ing the ac­cused could be used in the in­vest­ig­a­tion of fu­ture of­fences, they may be re­tained and used with the con­sent of the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings for a max­im­um of 10 years from when the de­cision be­comes leg­ally bind­ing.

3 Doc­u­ments identi­fy­ing per­sons oth­er than the ac­cused must be des­troyed as soon as the pro­ceed­ings against the ac­cused have been con­cluded or aban­doned or it has been de­cided not to bring pro­ceed­ings.

4 If it be­comes clear be­fore the ex­piry of the time lim­its un­der para­graphs 1–3 that there is no longer any in­terest in re­tain­ing or us­ing the identi­fy­ing doc­u­ments, they shall be des­troyed.

Art. 262 Handwriting and voice samples  

1 Ac­cused per­sons, wit­nesses and per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion may be re­quired to provide hand­writ­ing or voice samples for com­par­is­on with oth­er such samples.

2 Any per­son who re­fuses to provide such a sample may be is­sued with a fixed pen­alty fine. The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to the ac­cused and, where such rights ap­ply, per­sons who have the right to re­main si­lent or to re­fuse to testi­fy.

Chapter 7 Seizure

Art. 263 Principle  

1 Items and as­sets be­long­ing to an ac­cused or to a third party may be seized if it is ex­pec­ted that the items or as­sets:

a.
will be used as evid­ence;
b.
will be used as se­cur­ity for pro­ced­ur­al costs, mon­et­ary pen­al­ties, fines or dam­ages;
c.
will have to be re­turned to the per­sons suf­fer­ing harm;
d.
will have to be for­feited.

2 Seizure shall be ordered on the basis of a writ­ten war­rant con­tain­ing a brief state­ment of the grounds. In ur­gent cases, seizure may be ordered or­ally, but the or­der must there­after be con­firmed in writ­ing.

3 Where there is a risk in any delay, the po­lice or mem­bers of the pub­lic may pro­vi­sion­ally seize items or as­sets on be­half of the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the courts.

Art. 264 Restrictions  

1 The fol­low­ing items may not be seized ir­re­spect­ive of their loc­a­tion and of when they were cre­ated:

a.
doc­u­ments used in com­mu­nic­a­tions between the ac­cused and his or her de­fence law­yer;
b.
per­son­al re­cords and cor­res­pond­ence be­long­ing to the ac­cused if the in­terest in pro­tect­ing his or her pri­vacy out­weighs the in­terest in pro­sec­u­tion;
c.76
items and doc­u­ments used in com­mu­nic­a­tions between the ac­cused and per­sons who may re­fuse to testi­fy in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 170–173 and who are not ac­cused of an of­fence re­lat­ing to the same case;
d.77
items and doc­u­ments used in com­mu­nic­a­tions between an­oth­er per­son and his or her law­yer provided the law­yer is en­titled to rep­res­ent cli­ents be­fore Swiss courts in ac­cord­ance with the Law­yers Act of 23 June 200078 and is not ac­cused an of­fence re­lat­ing to the same case.

2 The re­stric­tions in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 do not ap­ply to items and as­sets that must be seized with a view to their re­turn to the per­son suf­fer­ing harm or their for­feit­ure.

3 If an en­titled per­son claims that a seizure of items or as­sets is not per­mit­ted on the grounds of a right to re­fuse to make a state­ment or testi­fy or for oth­er reas­ons, the crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies shall pro­ceed in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions on the seal­ing of evid­ence.

76 Amended by No I 6 of the FA of 28 Sept. 2012 on the Amend­ment of Pro­ced­ur­al Pro­vi­sions on Pro­fes­sion­al Con­fid­en­ti­al­ity for Law­yers, in force since 1 May 2013 (AS 2013 847; BBl 2011 8181).

77 In­ser­ted by No I 6 of the FA of 28 Sept. 2012 on the Amend­ment of Pro­ced­ur­al Pro­vi­sions on Pro­fes­sion­al Con­fid­en­ti­al­ity for Law­yers, in force since 1 May 2013 (AS 2013 847; BBl 2011 8181).

78 SR 935.61

Art. 265 Duty to hand over items or assets  

1 The hold­er is ob­liged to hand over items or as­sets that should be seized.

2 The fol­low­ing per­sons are not re­quired to hand over items or as­sets:

a.
the ac­cused;
b.
per­sons who have the right to re­main si­lent or to re­fuse to testi­fy, to the ex­tent that that right ap­plies;
c.
cor­por­ate un­der­tak­ings, if by hand­ing over items they could in­crim­in­ate them­selves such that they:
1.
could be held li­able un­der crim­in­al law or
2.
could be held li­able un­der civil law and if their in­terest in pro­tec­tion out­weighs the in­terest in pro­sec­u­tion.

3 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity may de­mand that the per­son ob­liged to hand over items or as­sets does so, may fix a dead­line, and no­ti­fy him or her that in the event of non-com­pli­ance the pen­al­ties men­tioned in Art­icle 292 SCC79 or a fixed pen­alty fine may be im­posed.

4 Com­puls­ory meas­ures are only per­mit­ted if the per­son con­cerned re­fuses to hand over the items or as­sets or if it may be as­sumed that a de­mand to hand over the items or as­sets may pre­ju­dice the suc­cess of the meas­ure.

Art. 266 Procedure  

1 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity or­der­ing seizure shall con­firm that it has re­ceived the prop­erty and as­sets seized or handed over in the seizure or­der or in a sep­ar­ate re­ceipt.

2 It shall draw up a list and safe­guard the prop­erty and as­sets ap­pro­pri­ately.

3 If im­mov­able prop­erty is seized, an in­hib­i­tion shall be ordered; this shall be re­cor­ded in the Land Re­gister.

4 The seizure of a debt shall be no­ti­fied to the debt­or, who shall be ad­vised that re­pay­ment to the cred­it­or will not settle the debt.

5 Prop­erty that is sub­ject to rap­id de­pre­ci­ation or re­quires ex­pens­ive main­ten­ance, as well as se­cur­it­ies or oth­er as­sets with a stock ex­change or mar­ket price may be sold im­me­di­ately in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 11 April 188980 on Debt En­force­ment and Bank­ruptcy (DEBA). The pro­ceeds shall be seized.

6 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the in­vest­ment of seized as­sets.

Art. 267 Decision on seized property and assets  

1 If the grounds for seizure no longer ap­ply, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or court shall re­voke the seizure or­der and hand over the prop­erty or as­sets to the per­son en­titled to them.

2 Where it is un­dis­puted that a per­son has as a dir­ect res­ult of the of­fence been de­prived of an item of prop­erty or an as­set be­long­ing to him or her, the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity shall re­turn the prop­erty or as­set to the per­son en­titled to it be­fore the con­clu­sion of the pro­ceed­ings.

3 Un­less the or­der to seize an item of prop­erty or an as­set has already been re­voked, a de­cision on its re­turn to the en­titled per­son, its use to cov­er costs or its for­feit­ure in shall be made in the fi­nal judg­ment.

4 If two or more per­sons lay claim to an item of prop­erty or an as­set in re­spect of which the seizure or­der is to be re­voked, the court may de­cide on the is­sue.

5 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity may award prop­erty or as­sets to a per­son and set the oth­er claimants a time lim­it with­in which to raise a civil ac­tion.

6 If at the time when the seizure or­der is re­voked the iden­tity of the per­son en­titled to the prop­erty or as­sets is un­known, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court shall give pub­lic no­tice that the prop­erty or as­sets are avail­able to be claimed. If no one makes a claim with­in five years of no­tice be­ing giv­en, the seized prop­erty and as­sets shall pass to the can­ton or to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

Art. 268 Seizure to cover costs  

1 As­sets be­long­ing to the ac­cused may be seized to the ex­tent that is an­ti­cip­ated to be re­quired to cov­er:

a.
pro­ced­ur­al costs and dam­ages;
b.
mon­et­ary pen­al­ties and fines.

2 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity shall take ac­count of the fin­an­cial cir­cum­stances of the ac­cused and his or her fam­ily when de­cid­ing on seizure.

3 Ex­emp­ted from seizure are as­sets that may not be seized in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 92–94 DEBA81.

Chapter 8 Covert Surveillance Measures

Section 1 Surveillance of Post and Telecommunications

Art. 269 Requirements  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may ar­range for post and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions to be mon­itored if:

a.
there is a strong sus­pi­cion that an of­fence lis­ted in para­graph 2 has been com­mit­ted;
b.
the ser­i­ous­ness of the of­fence jus­ti­fies sur­veil­lance; and
c.
in­vest­ig­at­ive activ­it­ies car­ried out so far have been un­suc­cess­ful or the en­quir­ies would oth­er­wise have no pro­spect of suc­cess or be made un­reas­on­ably com­plic­ated.

2 Sur­veil­lance may be ordered in the in­vest­ig­a­tion of the of­fences un­der the fol­low­ing Art­icles:

a.82
SCC: Art­icles 111–113, 115, 118 para­graph 2, 122, 124, 127, 129, 135, 138–140, 143, 144 para­graph 3, 144bis num­ber 1 para­graph 2 and num­ber 2 para­graph 2, 146–148, 156, 157 num­ber 2, 158 num­ber 1 para­graph 3 and num­ber 2, 160, 163 num­ber 1, 180, 181, 182–185, 187, 188 num­ber 1, 189–191, 192 para­graph 1, 195–197, 220, 221 para­graphs 1 and 2, 223 num­ber 1, 224 para­graph 1, 226, 227 num­ber 1 para­graph 1, 228 num­ber 1 para­graph 1, 230bis, 231 num­ber 1, 232 num­ber 1, 233 num­ber 1, 234 para­graph 1, 237 num­ber 1, 238 para­graph 1, 240 para­graph 1, 242, 244, 251 num­ber 1, 258, 259 para­graph 1, 260bis–260sex­ies, 261bis, 264–267, 271, 272 num­ber 2, 273, 274 num­ber 1 para­graph 2, 285, 301, 303 num­ber 1, 305, 305bis num­ber 2, 310, 312, 314, 317 num­ber 1, 319, 322ter, 322quater and 322sep­ties;
b.83
For­eign Na­tion­als and In­teg­ra­tion Act84 of 16 Decem­ber 200585: Art­icles 116 para­graph 3 and 118 para­graph 3;
c.
Fed­er­al Act of 22 June 200186 on the Hag­ue Con­ven­tion on Ad­op­tion and on Meas­ures to Pro­tect Chil­dren in In­ter­na­tion­al Ad­op­tion Cases: Art­icle 24;
d.87
War Ma­ter­i­al Act of 13 Decem­ber 199688: Art­icles 33 para­graph 2 and 34–35b;
e.
Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Act of 21 March 200389: Art­icles 88 para­graphs 1 and 2, 89 para­graphs 1 and 2 and 90 para­graph 1;
f.90
Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 195191: Art­icles 19 num­ber 1 second sen­tence and num­ber 2, and 20 num­ber 1 second sen­tence;
g.
En­vir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 198392: Art­icle 60 para­graph 1 let­ters g–i as well as m and o;
h.
Goods Con­trol Act of 13 Decem­ber 199693: Art­icle 14 para­graph 2;
i.94
Sport Pro­mo­tion Act of 17 June 201195: Art­icle 22 para­graphs 2 and 25a para­graph 3;
j.96
Fin­an­cial Mar­ket In­fra­struc­ture Act of 19 June 201597: Art­icles 154 and 155;
k.98
Weapons Act of 20 June 199799: Art­icle 33 para­graph 3;
l.100
Medi­cin­al Products Act of 15 Decem­ber 2000101: Art­icle 86 para­graphs 2 and 3;
m.102
Gambling Act of 29 Septem­ber 2017103: Art­icle 130 para­graph 2 for the of­fences un­der Art­icle 130 para­graph 1 let­ter a;
n.104
In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice Act of 25 Septem­ber 2015105: Art­icle 74 para­graph 4.

3 If the ad­ju­dic­a­tion an of­fence sub­ject to mil­it­ary jur­is­dic­tion is as­signed to the jur­is­dic­tion of the civil courts, the sur­veil­lance of post and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions may also be ordered in the in­vest­ig­a­tion of the of­fences un­der Art­icle 70 para­graph 2 of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code of 23 March 1979106.

82 Amended by An­nex No II 3 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).

83 Amended by An­nex No II 7 of the Crim­in­al Justice Au­thor­it­ies Act of 19 March 2010, in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 3267; BBl 2008 8125).

84 Title amended on 1 Jan. 2019 in ap­plic­a­tion of Art. 12 para. 2 of the Pub­lic­a­tions Act of 18 June 2004 (SR 170.512). This change has been made throughout the text.

85 SR 142.20

86 SR 211.221.31

87 Amended by No II of the FA of 16 March 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2013 (AS 2013 295; BBl 20115905).

88 SR 514.51

89 SR 732.1

90 Cor­rec­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly Draft­ing Com­mit­tee dated 19 Sept. 2014, pub­lished on 4 Oct. 2014 (AS 2011 4487).

91 SR 812.121

92 SR 814.01

93 SR 946.202

94 In­ser­ted by Art. 34 No 2 of the Sport Pro­mo­tion Act of 17 June 2011 (AS 2012 3953; BBl 2009 8189). Amended by An­nex No II 2 of the Gambling Act of 29 Sept. 2017, in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 5103; BBl 2015 8387).

95 SR 415.0

96 In­ser­ted by No II 4 of the FA of 28 Sept. 2012 (AS 2013 1103; BBl 2011 6873). Amen­ded by An­nex No 4 of the Fin­an­cial Mar­ket In­fra­struc­ture Act of 19 June 2015, in force since 1 Jan. 2016 (AS 2015 5339; BBl 2014 7483).

97 SR 958.1

98 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

99 SR 514.54

100 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 29 Sept. 2017 (Medicrime Con­ven­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 4771; BBl 2017 3135).

101 SR 812.21

102 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 2 of the Gambling Act of 29 Sept. 2017, in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 5103; BBl 2015 8387).

103 SR 935.51

104 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 3 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).

105 SR 121

106 SR 322.1

Art. 269bis Use of special technical devices for the surveillance of telecommunications 107  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may or­der the use of spe­cial tech­nic­al devices for the sur­veil­lance of tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in or­der to listen to or re­cord con­ver­sa­tions, identi­fy a per­son or prop­erty or de­term­ine their loc­a­tion if:

a.
the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 269 are met;
b.
pre­vi­ous tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions sur­veil­lance meas­ures un­der Art­icle 269 have been un­suc­cess­ful or sur­veil­lance with these meas­ures would be fu­tile or dis­pro­por­tion­ately dif­fi­cult;
c.
the au­thor­isa­tion re­quired un­der tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions law has been ob­tained to use these devices at the time of use.

2 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall keep stat­ist­ics on the use of these forms of sur­veil­lance. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

107 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Art. 269ter Use of special software for the surveillance of telecommunications 108  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may or­der the in­tro­duc­tion of spe­cial soft­ware in­to a data pro­cessing sys­tem in or­der to in­ter­cept and re­cov­er the con­tent of com­mu­nic­a­tions and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions metadata in un­en­cryp­ted form provided:

a.
the con­di­tions of Art­icle 269 para­graphs 1 and 3 are met;
b.
the pro­ceed­ings re­late to an of­fence lis­ted in Art­icle 286 para­graph 2;
c.
pre­vi­ous tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions sur­veil­lance meas­ures un­der Art­icle 269 have been un­suc­cess­ful or sur­veil­lance with these meas­ures would be fu­tile or dis­pro­por­tion­ately dif­fi­cult.

2 In the sur­veil­lance or­der, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall spe­cify:

a.
the de­sired data types; and
b.
the non-pub­lic spaces that may have to be entered in or­der to in­tro­duce spe­cial soft­ware in­to the rel­ev­ant data pro­cessing sys­tem.

3 Data not covered by para­graph that is col­lec­ted when us­ing such soft­ware must be des­troyed im­me­di­ately. No use may be made of in­form­a­tion ob­tained from such data.

4 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall keep stat­ist­ics on these forms of sur­veil­lance. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

108 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Art. 269quater Requirements applicable to special software for the surveillance of telecommunications 109  

1 The only spe­cial soft­ware that may be used is that which re­cords the sur­veil­lance un­al­ter­ably and without in­ter­rup­tion. The re­cord forms part of the case files.

2 The re­cov­ery of data from the data pro­cessing sys­tem un­der sur­veil­lance to the rel­ev­ant crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity must take place se­curely.

3 The crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity shall en­sure that the source code can be checked in or­der to veri­fy that the soft­ware has only leg­ally per­mit­ted func­tions.

109 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Art. 270 Subject matter of surveillance  

The post and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions of the fol­low­ing per­sons may be mon­itored:110

a.
the ac­cused;
b.
third parties if there is reas­on to be­lieve based on spe­cif­ic in­form­a­tion that:
1.111
the ac­cused uses the postal ad­dress or the tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vice of the third party, or
2.
the third party re­ceives cer­tain com­mu­nic­a­tions on be­half of the ac­cused or passes on com­mu­nic­a­tions from the ac­cused to an­oth­er per­son.

110 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

111 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Art. 271 Preservation of professional confidentiality 112  

1 When mon­it­or­ing a per­son be­long­ing to one of the pro­fes­sions men­tioned in Art­icles 170–173, the court must en­sure that in­form­a­tion that is rel­ev­ant to the en­quir­ies or the reas­on why this per­son is be­ing mon­itored is sep­ar­ated from in­form­a­tion that is rel­ev­ant, in or­der to guar­an­tee that no pro­fes­sion­al secrets come to the know­ledge of the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity. The sep­ar­ated data must be des­troyed im­me­di­ately; it may not be eval­u­ated.

2 In­form­a­tion un­der para­graph 1 need not be sep­ar­ated be­fore­hand if:

a.
there is a strong sus­pi­cion that the per­son sub­ject to pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity is guilty of an of­fence; and
b.
there are spe­cif­ic reas­ons jus­ti­fy­ing the dir­ect in­ter­cep­tion of com­mu­nic­a­tions.

3 In the sur­veil­lance of oth­er per­sons, as soon as it is es­tab­lished that they have links with a per­son men­tioned in Art­icles 170–173, in­form­a­tion on com­mu­nic­a­tion with the per­son must be sep­ar­ated in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1. In­form­a­tion in re­spect of which a per­son men­tioned in Art­icles 170–173 may re­fuse to testi­fy must be re­moved from the case doc­u­ments and des­troyed im­me­di­ately; it may not be eval­u­ated.

112 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Art. 272 Duty to obtain authorisation and general authorisation  

1 The sur­veil­lance of post and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions re­quires the au­thor­isa­tion of the com­puls­ory meas­ures court.

2 If en­quir­ies re­veal that the per­son un­der sur­veil­lance is chan­ging his or her tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vice reg­u­larly, the com­puls­ory meas­ures court may by way of ex­cep­tion au­thor­ise the sur­veil­lance of all iden­ti­fied ser­vices used by the per­son un­der sur­veil­lance for tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions so that au­thor­isa­tion is not re­quired in each in­di­vidu­al case (gen­er­al au­thor­isa­tion).113 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall sub­mit a re­port to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court for ap­prov­al every month and on con­clu­sion of the sur­veil­lance.

3 If dur­ing the sur­veil­lance of a ser­vice in terms of a gen­er­al au­thor­isa­tion, meas­ures are re­quired to pro­tect pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity and such meas­ures are not men­tioned in the gen­er­al au­thor­isa­tion, an ap­plic­a­tion for au­thor­isa­tion for the in­di­vidu­al sur­veil­lance op­er­a­tion con­cerned must be sub­mit­ted to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court.114

113 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

114 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Art. 273 Subscriber information, location identification and technical transmission features 115  

1 If there is a strong sus­pi­cion that a felony or mis­de­mean­our or a con­tra­ven­tion in terms of Art­icle 179sep­ties SCC116 has been com­mit­ted, and if the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 269 para­graph 1 let­ters b and c of this Code are met, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor may re­quest metadata re­lat­ing to tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 let­ter b of the Fed­er­al Act of 18 March 2016117 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic (SPTA) and metadata re­lat­ing to post in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19 para­graph 1 let­ter b SPTA re­lat­ing to the per­son un­der sur­veil­lance.

2 The or­der re­quires the ap­prov­al of the com­puls­ory meas­ures court.

3 The in­form­a­tion men­tioned in para­graph 1 may be re­ques­ted ir­re­spect­ive of the dur­a­tion of sur­veil­lance and for the 6 months pri­or to the date of the re­quest.

115 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

116 SR 311.0

117 SR 780.1

Art. 274 Authorisation procedure  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall sub­mit the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court with­in 24 hours of sur­veil­lance or the re­lease of in­form­a­tion be­ing ordered:

a.
the or­der;
b.
a state­ment of the reas­ons and the case doc­u­ments rel­ev­ant for au­thor­isa­tion.

2 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall de­cide and provide a brief state­ment of the reas­ons with­in 5 days of the sur­veil­lance or the re­lease of in­form­a­tion be­ing ordered. It may grant au­thor­isa­tion sub­ject to a time lim­it or oth­er con­di­tions, or re­quest fur­ther in­form­a­tion or in­vest­ig­a­tions.

3 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall give no­tice of the de­cision im­me­di­ately to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor and to the Post and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Sur­veil­lance Bur­eau in terms of Art­icle 3 SPTA118.119

4 The au­thor­isa­tion shall ex­pressly state:

a.
which meas­ures must be taken to pro­tect pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity;
b.
wheth­er non-pub­lic spaces may be entered in or­der to in­tro­duce spe­cial soft­ware in­to the rel­ev­ant data pro­cessing sys­tem.120

5 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall grant au­thor­isa­tion for a max­im­um of 3 months. The au­thor­isa­tion may be ex­ten­ded on one or more oc­ca­sions for a max­im­um of 3 months at a time. If an ex­ten­sion is re­quired, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall file an ap­plic­a­tion for the ex­ten­sion, stat­ing the reas­ons there­for, be­fore ex­piry of the cur­rent au­thor­isa­tion.

118 SR 780.1

119 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

120 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Art. 275 Conclusion of surveillance  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall stop sur­veil­lance im­me­di­ately if:

a.
the re­quire­ments are no longer ful­filled; or
b.
the au­thor­isa­tion or its ex­ten­sion is re­fused.

2 In cases un­der para­graph 1 let­ter a, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall no­ti­fy the com­puls­ory meas­ures court that sur­veil­lance has been con­cluded.

Art. 276 Results not required  

1 Re­cords of au­thor­ised sur­veil­lance op­er­a­tions that are not re­quired for crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings shall be stored sep­ar­ately from the case doc­u­ments and des­troyed im­me­di­ately on con­clu­sion of the pro­ceed­ings.

2 Postal items may be re­tained for as long as this is ne­ces­sary for the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings; they must be re­leased to the ad­dress­ee as soon as the status of the pro­ceed­ings per­mits.

Art. 277 Use of the results of unauthorised surveillance operations  

1 Doc­u­ments and data car­ri­ers ob­tained in un­au­thor­ised sur­veil­lance activ­it­ies must be des­troyed im­me­di­ately. Postal items must be de­livered to the ad­dress­ee im­me­di­ately.

2 The res­ults of un­au­thor­ised sur­veil­lance op­er­a­tions may not be used.

Art. 278 Accidental finds  

1 If in the course of sur­veil­lance op­er­a­tions of­fences oth­er than those spe­cified in the sur­veil­lance or­der come to light, these find­ings may be used against the ac­cused provided sur­veil­lance would have been per­mit­ted in the in­vest­ig­a­tion of the of­fences con­cerned.

1bis If of­fences come to light dur­ing sur­veil­lance op­er­a­tions in terms of Art­icles 35 and 36 SPTA121, the find­ings may be used sub­ject to the re­quire­ments spe­cified in para­graphs 2 and 3.122

2 Find­ings re­lat­ing to of­fences com­mit­ted by a per­son who is not named as a sus­pect in the sur­veil­lance or­der may be used if the re­quire­ments for the sur­veil­lance of this per­son are ful­filled.

3 In cases un­der para­graphs 1, 1bis and 2, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall or­der sur­veil­lance im­me­di­ately and be­gin the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure.123

4 Re­cords that may not be used as ac­ci­dent­al finds must be stored sep­ar­ately from the case doc­u­ments and des­troyed on con­clu­sion of the pro­ceed­ings.

5 Any find­ings made in a sur­veil­lance op­er­a­tion may be used to trace wanted per­sons.

121 SR 780.1

122 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 7 of the Crim­in­al Justice Au­thor­it­ies Act of 19 March 2010 (AS 2010 3267; BBl 2008 8125). Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

123 Amended by An­nex No II 7 of the Crim­in­al Justice Au­thor­it­ies Act of 19 March 2010, in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 3267; BBl 2008 8125).

Art. 279 Notice  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall no­ti­fy the sus­pect un­der sur­veil­lance and third parties un­der sur­veil­lance in terms of Art­icle 270 let­ter b of the reas­on for and form and dur­a­tion of the sur­veil­lance op­er­a­tion on con­clu­sion of the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings at the latest.

2 With the con­sent of the com­puls­ory meas­ures court, no­tice may be de­ferred or dis­pensed with if:

a.
the find­ings are not used as evid­ence in court pro­ceed­ings; and
b.
de­fer­ring or dis­pens­ing with no­tice is ne­ces­sary to pro­tect over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terests.

3 Per­sons whose post or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions have been un­der sur­veil­lance or who have used a postal ad­dress or tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions ser­vice that has been un­der sur­veil­lance may file an ob­jec­tion un­der Art­icles 393–397.124 The peri­od for fil­ing the ob­jec­tion be­gins on re­ceipt of the no­tice.

124 Amended by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

Section 2 Surveillance using Technical Surveillance Devices

Art. 280 Permitted use  

The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may use tech­nic­al sur­veil­lance devices in or­der to:

a.
listen to or re­cord words spoken in private;
b.
ob­serve or re­cord events in private or not gen­er­ally ac­cess­ible places;
c.
es­tab­lish the where­abouts of per­sons or prop­erty.
Art. 281 Requirements and conduct  

1 Devices may only be used in re­la­tion to a sus­pect.

2 Premises or vehicles of third parties may only be mon­itored if there is reas­on to be­lieve on the basis of spe­cif­ic in­form­a­tion that a sus­pect is present on those premises or us­ing that vehicle.

3 Use of devices may not be ordered in or­der to:

a.
re­cord as evid­ence in court pro­ceed­ings events in­volving an ac­cused who is in cus­tody;
b.
mon­it­or premises or vehicles of a third party who be­longs to one of the pro­fes­sions men­tioned in Art­icles 170–173.

4 The use of tech­nic­al sur­veil­lance devices is oth­er­wise gov­erned by Art­icles 269–279.

Section 3 Observation

Art. 282 Requirements  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor and, in the en­quir­ies, the po­lice may cov­ertly ob­serve per­sons and prop­erty in gen­er­ally ac­cess­ible loc­a­tions and make im­age or sound re­cord­ings while do­ing so if:

a.
there is reas­on to be­lieve on the basis of spe­cif­ic in­form­a­tion that felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours have been com­mit­ted; and
b.
the en­quir­ies would oth­er­wise have no pro­spect of suc­cess or be made un­reas­on­ably com­plic­ated.

2 Where ob­ser­va­tion activ­it­ies ordered by the po­lice have been con­duc­ted for one month, their con­tinu­ation re­quires au­thor­isa­tion by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

Art. 283 Notice  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall no­ti­fy the per­sons dir­ectly con­cerned by ob­ser­va­tion activ­it­ies of the reas­on for and form and dur­a­tion of the ob­ser­va­tion activ­it­ies on con­clu­sion of the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings at the latest.

2 No­tice may be de­ferred or dis­pensed with if:

a.
the find­ings are not used as evid­ence in court pro­ceed­ings; and
b.
de­fer­ring or dis­pens­ing with no­tice is ne­ces­sary to pro­tect over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terests.

Section 4 Surveillance of Banking Transactions

Art. 284 Principle  

In or­der to in­vest­ig­ate felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours, the com­puls­ory meas­ures court may, at the re­quest of the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, or­der the sur­veil­lance of trans­ac­tions between a sus­pect and a bank or bank-type in­sti­tu­tion.

Art. 285 Conduct  

1 If the com­puls­ory meas­ures court au­thor­ises the ap­plic­a­tion, it shall is­sue the bank or bank-type in­sti­tu­tion with writ­ten in­struc­tion on:

a.
the in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments to be provided
b.
the secrecy meas­ures to be taken.

2 The bank or bank-type in­sti­tu­tion is not re­quired to provide in­form­a­tion or doc­u­ments if in do­ing so it would in­crim­in­ate it­self to the ex­tent that:

a.
it could be con­victed of a crim­in­al of­fence; or
b.
it could be held li­able un­der civil law and if the in­terest to be pro­tec­ted out­weighs the in­terest in pro­sec­u­tion.

3 The ac­count hold­er shall be no­ti­fied of the meas­ure after it has been car­ried out in ac­cord­ance with of Art­icle 279 para­graphs 1 and 2.

4 Per­sons whose bank­ing trans­ac­tions have been mon­itored may file an ob­jec­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 393–397. The peri­od for fil­ing the ob­jec­tion be­gins on re­ceipt of the no­tice.

Section 5 Undercover Investigations125

125 Originally before Art. 286.

Art. 285a Definition 126  

In an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion, po­lice of­ficers or per­sons tem­por­ar­ily ap­poin­ted to carry out po­lice du­ties make con­tact with per­sons un­der false pre­tences by us­ing a false iden­tity (cov­er) sup­por­ted by doc­u­ments with the aim of gain­ing the trust of those per­sons and in­filt­rat­ing a crim­in­al en­vir­on­ment in or­der to in­vest­ig­ate par­tic­u­larly ser­i­ous of­fences.

126 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012 on Un­der­cov­er In­vest­ig­a­tions and En­quir­ies, in force since 1 May 2013 (AS 20131051; BBl 201255915609).

Art. 286 Requirements  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may or­der an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion if:

a.
it is sus­pec­ted that an of­fence lis­ted in para­graph 2 has been com­mit­ted;
b.
the ser­i­ous­ness of the of­fence jus­ti­fies the cov­ert in­vest­ig­a­tion; and
c.
pre­vi­ous in­vest­ig­at­ive activ­it­ies have been un­suc­cess­ful or the en­quir­ies would oth­er­wise have no pro­spect of suc­cess or be made un­reas­on­ably com­plic­ated.

2 An un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion is per­mit­ted in re­spect of of­fences un­der the fol­low­ing Art­icles:

a.127
SCC: Art­icles 111–113, 122, 124, 129, 135, 138–140, 143 para­graph 1, 144 para­graph 3, 144bis num­ber 1 para­graph 2 and num­ber 2 para­graph 2, 146 para­graphs 1 and 2, 147 para­graphs 1 and 2, 148, 156, 160, 182–185, 187, 188 num­ber 1, 189 para­graphs 1 and 3, 190 para­graphs 1 and 3, 191, 192 para­graph 1, 195, 196, 197 para­graphs 3–5, 221 para­graphs 1 and 2, 223 num­ber 1, 224 para­graph 1, 227 num­ber 1 para­graph 1, 228 num­ber 1 para­graph 1, 230bis, 231 num­ber 1, 232 num­ber 1, 233 num­ber 1, 234 para­graph 1, 237 num­ber 1, 238 para­graph 1, 240 para­graph 1, 242, 244 para­graph 2, 251 num­ber 1, 260bis–260sex­ies, 264–267, 271, 272 num­ber 2, 273, 274 num­ber 1 para­graph 2, 301, 305bis num­ber 2, 310, 322ter, 322quater, 322sep­ties;
b.128
For­eign Na­tion­als and In­teg­ra­tion Act of 16. Decem­ber 2005129: Art­icles 116 para­graph 3 and 118 para­graph 3;
c.
Fed­er­al Act of 22. June 2001130 on the Hag­ue Con­ven­tion on Ad­op­tion and on Meas­ures to Pro­tect Chil­dren in In­ter­na­tion­al Ad­op­tion Cases: Art­icle 24;
d.131
War Ma­ter­i­al Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996132: Art­icles 33 para­graph 2 and 34–35b;
e.
Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Act of 21 March 2003133: Art­icles 88 para­graphs 1 and 2, 89 para­graphs 1 and 2 and 90 para­graph 1;
f.134
Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 1951135: Art­icles 19 num­ber 1 second sen­tence and num­ber 2, and 20 num­ber 1 second sen­tence;
g.
Goods Con­trol Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996136: Art­icle 14 para­graph 2;
h.137
Sport Pro­mo­tion Act of 17 June 2011138: Art­icles 22 para­graph 2 and 25a para­graph 3;
i.139
Weapons Act of 20 June 1997140: Art­icle 33 para­graph 3;
j.141
Medi­cin­al Products Act of 15 Decem­ber 2000142: Art­icle 86 para­graphs 2 and 3;
k.143
Gambling Act of 29 Septem­ber 2017144: Art­icle 130 para­graph 2 for the of­fences un­der Art­icle 130 para­graph 1 let­ter a;
l.145
In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice Act of 25 Septem­ber 2015146: Art­icle 74 para­graph 4.

3 If the ad­ju­dic­a­tion an of­fence sub­ject to mil­it­ary jur­is­dic­tion is as­signed to the jur­is­dic­tion of the civil courts, an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion may also be ordered in re­spect of of­fences un­der Art­icle 70 para­graph 2 of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code of 23 March 1979147.

127 Amended by An­nex No II 3 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).

128 Amended by An­nex No II 7 of the Crim­in­al Justice Au­thor­it­ies Act of 19 March 2010, in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 3267; BBl 2008 8125).

129 SR 142.20

130 SR 211.221.31

131 Amended by No II of the FA of 16 March 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2013 (AS 2013 295; BBl 20115905).

132 SR 514.51

133 SR 732.1

134 Cor­rec­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly Draft­ing Com­mit­tee dated 19 Sept. 2014, pub­lished on 4 Oct. 2014 (AS 2011 4487).

135 SR 812.121

136 SR 946.202

137 In­ser­ted by Art. 34 No 2 of the Sport Pro­mo­tion Act of 17 June 2012 (AS 2012 3953; BBl 2009 8189). Amended by An­nex No II 2 of the Gambling Act of 29 Sept. 2017, in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 5103; BBl 2015 8387).

138 SR 415.0

139 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 1 of the FA of 18 March 2016 on the Sur­veil­lance of Postal and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Traffic, in force since 1 March 2018 (AS 2018 117; BBl 2013 2683).

140 SR 514.54

141 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 29 Sept. 2017 (Medicrime Con­ven­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 4771; BBl 2017 3135).

142 SR 812.21

143 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 2 of the Gambling Act of 29 Sept. 2017, in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2018 5103; BBl 2015 8387).

144 SR 935.51

145 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 3 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).

146 SR 121

147 SR 322.1

Art. 287 Requirements for the persons deployed  

1 The fol­low­ing per­sons may be de­ployed as un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors:

a.
mem­bers of a Swiss or for­eign po­lice force;
b.
per­sons em­ployed tem­por­ar­ily on po­lice du­ties even if they have not re­ceived po­lice train­ing.

2 Only mem­bers of a po­lice force may be de­ployed as com­mand staff.

3 If mem­bers of a for­eign po­lice force are de­ployed, they are nor­mally led by their reg­u­lar com­mand­er.

Art. 288 Cover and guarantee of anonymity  

1 The po­lice shall provide un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors with a cov­er.148

2 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may guar­an­tee to un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors that their true iden­tity will not be re­vealed even if they ap­pear in court pro­ceed­ings as a per­son provid­ing in­form­a­tion or as a wit­ness.149

2 It may guar­an­tee to un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors that their true iden­tity will not be dis­closed even if they ap­pear in court pro­ceed­ings as per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion or wit­nesses.

3 If un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors com­mit an of­fence while de­ployed, the com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall de­cide on the iden­tity un­der which crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings are brought.

148 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012 on Un­der­cov­er In­vest­ig­a­tions and En­quir­ies, in force since 1 May 2013 (AS 20131051; BBl 201255915609).

149 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012 on Un­der­cov­er In­vest­ig­a­tions and En­quir­ies, in force since 1 May 2013 (AS 20131051; BBl 201255915609).

Art. 289 Authorisation procedure  

1 The de­ploy­ment of an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or re­quires the au­thor­isa­tion of the com­puls­ory meas­ures court.

2 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall sub­mit the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments to the com­puls­ory meas­ures court with­in 24 hours of or­der­ing the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion:

a.
the or­der;
b.
a state­ment of the reas­ons and the case doc­u­ments rel­ev­ant for au­thor­isa­tion.

3 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall de­cide and provide a brief state­ment of the reas­ons with­in 5 days of the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion be­ing ordered. It may grant au­thor­isa­tion sub­ject to a time lim­it or oth­er con­di­tions, or re­quest fur­ther in­form­a­tion or in­vest­ig­a­tions.

4 The au­thor­isa­tion shall ex­pressly state wheth­er it is per­mit­ted:

a.
to pro­duce or al­ter of­fi­cial doc­u­ments in or­der to cre­ate or main­tain a cov­er;
b.
to guar­an­tee an­onym­ity;
c.
to de­ploy per­sons with no po­lice train­ing.

5 The com­puls­ory meas­ures court shall grant au­thor­isa­tion for a max­im­um of 12 months. Au­thor­isa­tion may be ex­ten­ded on one or more oc­ca­sions for a max­im­um of 6 months at a time. If an ex­ten­sion is re­quired, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall file an ap­plic­a­tion for the ex­ten­sion, stat­ing the reas­ons there­for, be­fore ex­piry of the cur­rent au­thor­isa­tion.

6 If au­thor­isa­tion is not gran­ted or no au­thor­isa­tion has been ob­tained, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall ter­min­ate de­ploy­ment im­me­di­ately. All re­cords must be des­troyed im­me­di­ately. Find­ings made by means of the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion may not be used.

Art. 290 Briefing before deployment  

The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall brief the com­mand­ing of­ficer and the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or be­fore de­ploy­ment.

Art. 291 Commanding officer  

1 Dur­ing de­ploy­ment, the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or is sub­ject to the dir­ect in­struc­tions of the com­mand­ing of­ficer. Dur­ing de­ploy­ment, any con­tact between the pub­lic pro­sec­utor and the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or shall take place ex­clus­ively via the com­mand­ing of­ficer.

2 The com­mand­ing of­ficer has the fol­low­ing du­ties in par­tic­u­lar:

a.
he or she shall brief the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or in de­tail and con­tinu­ously on the as­sign­ment and powers and on how to deal with the cov­er story.
b.
he or she shall in­struct and ad­vise the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or and con­tinu­ally as­sess the risk situ­ation.
c.
he or she shall keep a writ­ten re­cord of or­al re­ports made by the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or and a full dossier on the op­er­a­tion.
d.
he or she shall in­form the pub­lic pro­sec­utor reg­u­larly and in full on the op­er­a­tion.
Art. 292 Duties of undercover investigators  

1 Un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors shall carry out their op­er­a­tion in ac­cord­ance their du­ties and in line with their in­struc­tions.

2 They shall re­port to their com­mand­ing of­ficer reg­u­larly and in full on their activ­it­ies and their find­ings.

Art. 293 Scope of influence permitted  

1 Un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors may not gen­er­ally en­cour­age oth­ers to com­mit of­fences or in­cite per­sons already will­ing to com­mit of­fences to com­mit more ser­i­ous of­fences. They must lim­it their activ­it­ies to sub­stan­ti­at­ing an ex­ist­ing de­cision to com­mit an of­fence.

2 Their activ­it­ies may only be of minor sig­ni­fic­ance in the de­cision to com­mit a spe­cif­ic of­fence.

3 If re­quired in or­der to bring about the main trans­ac­tion, they may make tri­al pur­chases or provide evid­ence of their abil­ity to pay.

4 If the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or ex­ceeds the re­mit of the au­thor­ised op­er­a­tion, the court must take due ac­count of this in as­sess­ing the sen­tence im­posed on the per­son sub­ject to the in­vest­ig­at­or's in­flu­ence, or may dis­pense with im­pos­ing any sen­tence.

Art. 294 Deployment in investigations under the Narcotics Act  

Un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors may not be con­victed of an of­fence un­der Art­icles 19 and 20–22 of the Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 1951150 if they are act­ing in the course of an au­thor­ised un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion.

Art. 295 Money for simulated transactions  

1 At the re­quest of the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide sums of money via the Na­tion­al Bank in the re­quired amounts, forms and de­nom­in­a­tions for the pur­pose of sim­u­lated trans­ac­tions and to provide evid­ence of an abil­ity to pay.

2 The re­quest must be sub­mit­ted to the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice to­geth­er with a sum­mary of the facts of the case.

3 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall take the pre­cau­tions re­quired to pro­tect the money provided. In the event of loss, the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­ton to which pub­lic pro­sec­utor be­longs is li­able.

Art. 296 Accidental finds  

1 Where evid­ence of an of­fence oth­er than that named in the in­vest­ig­a­tion or­der comes to light in the course of an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion, the evid­ence may be used provided the or­der­ing of a cov­ert in­vest­ig­a­tion would have been per­mit­ted in or­der to in­vest­ig­ate the of­fence newly dis­closed.

2 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall or­der an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion im­me­di­ately and be­gin the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure.

Art. 297 Conclusion of the operation  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall ter­min­ate the op­er­a­tion im­me­di­ately if:

a.
the re­quire­ments are no longer met;
b.
au­thor­isa­tion or an ex­ten­sion there­of is re­fused; or
c.
the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or or the com­mand­ing of­ficer fails to fol­low in­struc­tions or fails to carry out his or her du­ties in some oth­er way, in par­tic­u­lar by wil­fully provid­ing false in­form­a­tion to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

2 In cases un­der para­graph 1 let­ters a and c, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall no­ti­fy the com­puls­ory meas­ures court of the ter­min­a­tion of the op­er­a­tion.

3 When ter­min­at­ing an op­er­a­tion, it must be en­sured that neither the un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­or nor any third parties in­volved in the in­vest­ig­a­tion are ex­posed to any avoid­able risks.

Art. 298 Notice  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall give no­tice to the ac­cused at the latest on con­clu­sion of the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings that he or she has been the sub­ject of an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion.

2 No­tice may be de­ferred or dis­pensed with, sub­ject to the con­sent of the com­puls­ory meas­ures court, if:

a.
the find­ings are not used as evid­ence; and
b.
de­fer­ring or dis­pens­ing with no­tice is ne­ces­sary to pro­tect over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terests.

3 Per­sons who have been the sub­ject of an un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion may file an ob­jec­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 393–397. The peri­od for fil­ing the ob­jec­tion be­gins on re­ceipt of no­tice of the in­vest­ig­a­tion.

Section 5a Undercover Enquiries151

151 Inserted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012 on Undercover Investigations and Enquiries, in force since 1 May 2013 (AS 20131051; BBl 201255915609).

Art. 298a Definition  

1 In un­der­cov­er en­quir­ies, po­lice of­ficers de­ployed for short peri­ods in such a way that their true iden­tity and func­tion re­mains con­cealed at­tempt to in­vest­ig­ate felon­ies and mis­de­mean­ours and to do so enter in­to or pre­tend that they wish to enter in­to fic­ti­tious trans­ac­tions.

2 Un­der­cov­er agents are not provided with a cov­er with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 285a. Their true iden­tity and func­tion is dis­closed in the case files and at hear­ings.

Art. 298b Requirements  

1 The pub­lic pro­sec­utor and, dur­ing po­lice en­quir­ies, the po­lice may or­der un­der­cov­er en­quir­ies if:

a.
it is sus­pec­ted that a felony or mis­de­mean­our has been com­mit­ted; and
b.
pre­vi­ous en­quir­ies or in­vest­ig­a­tions have been un­suc­cess­ful or the en­quir­ies would oth­er­wise have little pro­spect of suc­cess or would be made dis­pro­por­tion­ately more com­plex.

2 If un­der­cov­er en­quir­ies ordered by the po­lice have been car­ried out for one month, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor must ap­prove their con­tinu­ation.

Art. 298c Requirements for the persons deployed and conduct  

1 Art­icle 287 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis to the per­sons de­ployed. The de­ploy­ment of per­sons in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 287 para­graph 1 let­ter b is not per­mit­ted.

2 Art­icles 291–294 ap­ply by ana­logy to the status, du­ties and ob­lig­a­tions of the un­der­cov­er agents and their com­mand­ing of­ficers.

Art. 298d Termination and notification  

1 The po­lice unit or pub­lic pro­sec­utor re­spons­ible shall ter­min­ate the un­der­cov­er en­quir­ies im­me­di­ately if:

a.
the re­quire­ments there­for are no longer met;
b.
pub­lic pro­sec­utor fails to ap­prove the con­tinu­ation of en­quir­ies ordered by the po­lice; or
c.
the un­der­cov­er agent or com­mand­ing of­ficer does not fol­low in­struc­tion or fails to ful­fil his or her ob­lig­a­tions in an­oth­er way, in par­tic­u­lar by provid­ing the pub­lic pro­sec­utor with false in­form­a­tion or at­tempt­ing to in­flu­ence the tar­get per­son in an un­law­ful man­ner.

2 The po­lice shall no­ti­fy the pub­lic pro­sec­utor of the ter­min­a­tion of un­der­cov­er en­quir­ies.

3 When ter­min­at­ing un­der­cov­er en­quir­ies, care should be taken to en­sure that the un­der­cov­er agent is not ex­posed to any avoid­able risk.

4 No­ti­fic­a­tion of un­der­cov­er en­quir­ies is gov­erned by Art­icle 298 para­graphs 1 and 3 mu­tatis mutandis.

Title 6 Preliminary Proceedings

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