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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.¹⁴⁴

SCC: Art­icles 111–113, 122, 124, 129, 135, 138–140, 143 para­graph 1, 144 para­graph 3, 144^bis 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, 230^bis, 231 num­ber 1, 232 num­ber 1, 233 num­ber 1, 234 para­graph 1, 237 num­ber 1, 240 para­graph 1, 242, 244 para­graph 2, 251 num­ber 1, 260^bis–260^sex­ies, 264–267, 271, 272 num­ber 2, 273, 274 num­ber 1 para­graph 2, 301, 305^bis num­ber 2, 310, 322^ter, 322^quater and 322^sep­ties;

b.¹⁴⁵

For­eign Na­tion­als and In­teg­ra­tion Act of 16. Decem­ber 2005¹⁴⁶: Art­icles 116 para­graph 3 and 118 para­graph 3;

c.

Fed­er­al Act of 22. June 2001¹⁴⁷ on the Hag­ue Con­ven­tion on Ad­op­tion and on Meas­ures to Pro­tect Chil­dren in In­ter­na­tion­al Ad­op­tion Cases: Art­icle 24;

d.¹⁴⁸

War Ma­ter­i­al Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996¹⁴⁹: Art­icles 33 para­graph 2 and 34–35b;

e.

Nuc­le­ar En­ergy Act of 21 March 2003¹⁵⁰: Art­icles 88 para­graphs 1 and 2, 89 para­graphs 1 and 2 and 90 para­graph 1;

f.¹⁵¹

Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 1951¹⁵²: Art­icles 19 num­ber 1 second sen­tence and num­ber 2, and 20 num­ber 1 second sen­tence;

g.

Goods Con­trol Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996¹⁵³: Art­icle 14 para­graph 2;

h.¹⁵⁴

Sport Pro­mo­tion Act of 17 June 2011¹⁵⁵: Art­icles 22 para­graph 2 and 25a para­graph 3;

i.¹⁵⁶

Weapons Act of 20 June 1997¹⁵⁷: Art­icle 33 para­graph 3;

j.¹⁵⁸

Medi­cin­al Products Act of 15 Decem­ber 2000¹⁵⁹: Art­icle 86 para­graphs 2 and 3;

k.¹⁶⁰

Gambling Act of 29 Septem­ber 2017¹⁶¹: Art­icle 130 para­graph 2 for the of­fences un­der Art­icle 130 para­graph 1 let­ter a;

l.¹⁶²

In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice Act of 25 Septem­ber 2015¹⁶³: 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 1979¹⁶⁴.

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.

¹ The po­lice shall provide un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors with a cov­er.¹⁶⁵

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.¹⁶⁶

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­at­ors may not be con­victed of an of­fence un­der Art­icles 19 and 20–22 of the Nar­cot­ics Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 1951¹⁶⁷ if they are act­ing in the course of an au­thor­ised un­der­cov­er in­vest­ig­a­tion.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

¹ The pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings com­prise the po­lice en­quir­ies and the in­vest­ig­a­tion by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

² In the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings, based on the sus­pi­cion that an of­fence has been com­mit­ted, en­quir­ies shall be car­ried out and evid­ence gathered in or­der to es­tab­lish wheth­er:

a.

a sum­mary pen­alty or­der should be is­sued to the ac­cused;

b.

charges should be brought against the ac­cused;

c.

the pro­ceed­ings should be aban­doned.

¹ Pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings com­mence when:

a.

en­quir­ies are be­gun by the po­lice;

b.

an in­vest­ig­a­tion is opened by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

² The com­mence­ment of pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings may not be con­tested un­less the ac­cused claims it con­sti­tutes a vi­ol­a­tion of the rule against double jeop­ardy.

¹ Any per­son is en­titled to re­port an of­fence to a crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity in writ­ing or or­ally.

² The crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity shall if re­ques­ted no­ti­fy the per­son mak­ing the re­port of wheth­er crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings are be­ing com­menced and how they are pro­ceed­ing.

³ A per­son mak­ing a re­port who has neither suffered loss nor in­jury nor is a private claimant has no fur­ther pro­ced­ur­al rights.

¹ The crim­in­al justice au­thor­it­ies are ob­liged to re­port to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity all of­fences that have come to light or that have been re­por­ted to them in the course of their of­fi­cial activ­it­ies, un­less they them­selves are re­spons­ible for pro­sec­ut­ing the of­fence.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall reg­u­late the duty to re­port of mem­bers of oth­er au­thor­it­ies.

³ The duty to re­port ceases to ap­ply for per­sons who have the right to re­main si­lent or to re­fuse to testi­fy in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 113 para­graph 1, 168, 169 and 180 para­graph 1.

¹ In the case of of­fences that are pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint or with of­fi­cial au­thor­isa­tion, pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings shall be com­menced only if a crim­in­al com­plaint has been made or au­thor­isa­tion gran­ted.

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may act to se­cure evid­ence be­fore­hand where this can­not be delayed.

¹ A crim­in­al com­plaint must be sub­mit­ted in writ­ing or made or­ally and noted down in an of­fi­cial re­cord. It must be made to the po­lice, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for pro­sec­ut­ing con­tra­ven­tions.

² Where a per­son waives the right to file a com­plaint or with­draws a com­plaint, the same form is re­quired.

¹ The po­lice and the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall in­form the vic­tim in full at their first ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing of his or her rights and ob­lig­a­tions in the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings.

² They shall at the same time in­form the vic­tim of:¹⁷¹

a.

the ad­dresses and ser­vices provided by vic­tim coun­selling ser­vices;

b.

the pos­sib­il­ity of claim­ing vari­ous vic­tim sup­port be­ne­fits;

c.

the time lim­it for the fil­ing claims for dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion;

d.¹⁷²

the right un­der Art­icle 92a SCC to re­quest in­form­a­tion on the de­cisions and and cir­cum­stances of the ex­e­cu­tion of pen­al­ties and meas­ure in re­la­tion to the of­fend­er.

³ If the vic­tim agrees, they shall pass his or her name and ad­dress on to a coun­selling ser­vice.

⁴ Para­graphs 1–3 also ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the re­l­at­ives of the vic­tim.

⁵ Con­firm­a­tion that the pro­vi­sions this Art­icle have been com­plied with must be re­cor­ded in the case file.

¹ The po­lice shall in the course of their en­quir­ies es­tab­lish the facts rel­ev­ant to an of­fence on the basis of re­ports, in­struc­tions from the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or their find­ings.

² They must in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

se­cure and eval­u­ate forensic and oth­er evid­ence;

b.

identi­fy and in­ter­view per­sons suf­fer­ing harm and sus­pects;

c.

if ne­ces­sary, stop and ar­rest or at­tempt to trace sus­pects.

³ Their activ­it­ies are gov­erned by the reg­u­la­tions on in­vest­ig­a­tions, evid­ence and com­puls­ory meas­ures, sub­ject to the spe­cial pro­vi­sions of this Code.

¹ The po­lice shall in­form the pub­lic pro­sec­utor im­me­di­ately of ser­i­ous of­fences and oth­er ser­i­ous in­cid­ents. The fed­er­al and can­ton­al pub­lic pro­sec­utors may is­sue more de­tailed pro­vi­sions on this duty to provide in­form­a­tion.

² The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may is­sue in­struc­tions and as­sign­ments to the po­lice at any time or take over the con­duct of the pro­ceed­ings. In the cases un­der para­graph 1, it shall if pos­sible con­duct the first es­sen­tial ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ings it­self.

³ The po­lice shall re­cord all their find­ings and the meas­ures they have taken in writ­ten re­ports and pass these on con­clu­sion of their en­quir­ies to­geth­er with the re­ports of of­fences, tran­scripts of ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ings, oth­er files and prop­erty and as­sets that have been seized dir­ectly to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

⁴ They may dis­pense with mak­ing a re­port if:

a.

there is clearly no need for the pub­lic pro­sec­utor to take fur­ther pro­ceed­ings; and

b.

no com­puls­ory meas­ures or oth­er form­al en­quir­ies have been car­ried out.

¹ In the in­vest­ig­a­tion, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall cla­ri­fy the fac­tu­al and leg­al as­pects of the case in or­der that it may con­clude the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings.

² If it is an­ti­cip­ated that charges will be brought or a sum­mary pen­alty or­der is­sued, it shall cla­ri­fy the per­son­al cir­cum­stances of the ac­cused.

³ If charges are to be brought, the in­vest­ig­a­tion must provide the court with the ba­sic in­form­a­tion re­quired to as­sess the guilt of the ac­cused and to im­pose a sen­tence.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall open an in­vest­ig­a­tion if:

a.

there is a reas­on­able sus­pi­cion that an of­fence has been com­mit­ted based on the in­form­a­tion and re­ports from the po­lice, the com­plaint or its own find­ings;

b.

it in­tends to or­der com­puls­ory meas­ures;

c.

it has re­ceived in­form­a­tion from the po­lice in terms of Art­icle 307 para­graph 1.

² It may re­turn po­lice re­ports and crim­in­al com­plaints that do not con­tain clear in­dic­a­tions that an of­fence has been com­mit­ted to the po­lice so that they may carry out ad­di­tion­al en­quir­ies.

³ It shall open the in­vest­ig­a­tion by is­su­ing a rul­ing in which it shall name the ac­cused and the of­fence that he or she is sus­pec­ted of com­mit­ting. The rul­ing need not con­tain a state­ment of reas­ons or be made pub­lic. It is non-con­test­able.

⁴ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may not open an in­vest­ig­a­tion if it im­me­di­ately is­sues a no-pro­ceed­ings or­der or a sum­mary pen­alty or­der.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall rule that no pro­ceed­ings be taken as soon as it is es­tab­lished on the basis of the com­plaint or the po­lice re­port that:

a.

the ele­ments of the of­fence con­cerned or the pro­ced­ur­al re­quire­ments have clearly not been ful­filled;

b.

there are pro­ced­ur­al im­ped­i­ments;

c.

there should be no pro­sec­u­tion for the reas­ons stated in Art­icle 8.

² The pro­ced­ure is oth­er­wise gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utors shall gath­er the evid­ence them­selves. The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall de­cide on the ex­tent to which they may del­eg­ate spe­cif­ic in­vest­ig­at­ive activ­it­ies to their staff.

² The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may ex­tend the in­vest­ig­a­tion to in­clude ad­di­tion­al per­sons or of­fences. Art­icle 309 para­graph 3 ap­plies.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may in­struct the po­lice to carry out ad­di­tion­al en­quir­ies after the in­vest­ig­a­tion has been opened. It shall is­sue writ­ten in­struc­tions, or in cases of ur­gency or­al in­struc­tions, that lim­it the en­quir­ies to clearly defined is­sues.

² In the case of ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ings car­ried out by the po­lice on be­half of the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, the per­sons in­volved in the pro­ceed­ings have the pro­ced­ur­al rights that they would be ac­cor­ded in the case of ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ings by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall gath­er the evid­ence re­quired to as­sess the civil claim provided the pro­ceed­ings are not un­duly ex­ten­ded or delayed thereby.

² It may the make the gath­er­ing of evid­ence that primar­ily serves to fur­ther the civil claim con­di­tion­al on an ad­vance pay­ment by the private claimant to cov­er costs.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may sus­pend an in­vest­ig­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar if:

a.

the iden­tity of the of­fend­er or his or her where­abouts is un­known is or there are oth­er tem­por­ary pro­ced­ur­al im­ped­i­ments;

b.

the out­come of the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings de­pends on oth­er pro­ceed­ings and it seems ap­pro­pri­ate to await their con­clu­sion;

c.

private set­tle­ment pro­ceed­ings are on­go­ing and it seems ap­pro­pri­ate to await their out­come;

d.

a de­cision on the sub­stance of the case de­pends on how the con­sequences of the of­fence de­vel­op.

² In the case of para­graph 1 let­ter c, the peri­od of sus­pen­sion shall be lim­ited to 3 months; it may be ex­ten­ded on one oc­ca­sion by a fur­ther 3 months.

³ Be­fore sus­pend­ing pro­ceed­ings, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall gath­er any evid­ence that is at risk of be­ing lost. If the iden­tity of the of­fend­er or his or her where­abouts is un­known, it shall or­der that he or she be traced.

⁴ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall give no­tice of the sus­pen­sion to the ac­cused, the private claimant and the vic­tims.

⁵ The pro­ced­ure is oth­er­wise gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on the aban­don­ment of pro­ceed­ings.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall re­sume a sus­pen­ded in­vest­ig­a­tion ex of­fi­cio if the grounds for sus­pen­sion no longer ap­ply.

² A de­cision to re­sume pro­ceed­ings may not be con­tested.

¹ Where the pro­ceed­ings re­late to an of­fence that is pro­sec­uted only on com­plaint, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor may sum­mon the com­plain­ant and the ac­cused to a hear­ing with the aim of achiev­ing a set­tle­ment. If the com­plain­ant fails to at­tend, the com­plaint is deemed to have been with­drawn.

² If con­sid­er­a­tion is be­ing giv­en to an ex­emp­tion from pun­ish­ment due to re­par­a­tion be­ing made in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 53 SCC¹⁷³, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall in­vite the per­son suf­fer­ing harm and the ac­cused to a hear­ing with the aim of agree­ing on re­par­a­tion.

³ If an agree­ment is reached, this shall be placed on re­cord and signed by those in­volved. The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall then aban­don the pro­ceed­ings.

⁴ If the ac­cused fails to at­tend a hear­ing in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 or 2 or if no agree­ment is reached, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall im­me­di­ately pro­ceed with the in­vest­ig­a­tion. In cases where it is jus­ti­fied, it may re­quire the com­plain­ant to provide se­cur­ity for costs and dam­ages with­in ten days.

In ex­tens­ive and com­plex pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall ques­tion the ac­cused again in a fi­nal ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ing be­fore con­clud­ing the in­vest­ig­a­tion and re­quest the ac­cused to com­ment on the find­ings.

¹ If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor re­gards the in­vest­ig­a­tion as com­pleted, it shall is­sue a sum­mary pen­alty or­der or give writ­ten no­tice to those parties whose ad­dress is known of the im­min­ent con­clu­sion of the in­vest­ig­a­tion and in­form them wheth­er it is in­ten­ded to bring charges or aban­don the pro­ceed­ings. At the same time, it shall al­low the parties a peri­od with­in which to sub­mit re­quests for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken.

² It may re­ject re­quests for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken only if the evid­ence in­volves mat­ters that are ir­rel­ev­ant, ob­vi­ous, known to the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity or already sat­is­fact­or­ily proven in leg­al terms. The de­cision shall be is­sued in writ­ing and with a brief state­ment of the grounds. Re­quests for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken that are re­fused may be made again in the main pro­ceed­ings.

³ No­tice in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 and de­cisions in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 are non-con­test­able.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall or­der the com­plete or par­tial aban­don­ment of the pro­ceed­ings if:

a.

no sus­pi­cions are sub­stan­ti­ated that jus­ti­fy bring­ing charges;

b.

the con­duct does not ful­fil the ele­ments of an of­fence;

c.

grounds jus­ti­fy­ing the con­duct mean that it does not con­sti­tute an of­fence;

d.

it is im­possible to ful­fil the pro­ced­ur­al re­quire­ments or pro­ced­ur­al im­ped­i­ments have aris­en;

e.

a stat­utory reg­u­la­tion ap­plies that per­mit the pub­lic pro­sec­utor to dis­pense with bring­ing charges or im­pos­ing a pen­alty.

² It may also aban­don the pro­ceed­ings by way of ex­cep­tion if:

a.

this is es­sen­tial in the in­terests of a vic­tim who was un­der the age of 18 at the time of the of­fence and this in­terest clearly over­rides the in­terest of the state in a pro­sec­u­tion; and

b.

the vic­tim or in the event that the vic­tim lacks leg­al ca­pa­city, his or her leg­al agent con­sents to the aban­don­ment.

¹ The form and gen­er­al con­tent of the rul­ing abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings are gov­erned by Art­icles 80 and 81.

² The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall re­voke ex­ist­ing com­puls­ory meas­ures in the rul­ing abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings. It may or­der the for­feit­ure of prop­erty and as­sets.

³ Civil claims are not ad­dressed in the rul­ing abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings. A private claimant may take civil ac­tion after the rul­ing be­comes leg­ally bind­ing.

⁴ A leg­ally bind­ing rul­ing abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings is equi­val­ent to a fi­nal ver­dict of ac­quit­tal.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall give no­tice of the rul­ing abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings to:

a.

the parties;

b.

the vic­tim;

c.

the oth­er per­sons in­volved in the pro­ceed­ings af­fected by the rul­ing;

d.

any oth­er au­thor­it­ies des­ig­nated by the can­tons provided they have a right of ap­peal.

² The fore­go­ing is sub­ject to the ex­press waiver of any per­son in­volved in the pro­ceed­ings.

³ Art­icles 84–88 are oth­er­wise ap­plic­able mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons may stip­u­late that the rul­ing abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings be ap­proved by the Of­fice of the Chief Can­ton­al Pro­sec­utor.

² The parties may con­test the rul­ing abandon­ing pro­ceed­ings with the ob­jec­tions au­thor­ity with­in 10 days.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall or­der the re­open­ing of pro­ceed­ings that have been aban­doned by a leg­ally-bind­ing rul­ing if it ob­tains new evid­ence or in­form­a­tion that:

a.

in­dic­ates that the ac­cused is guilty of a crim­in­al of­fence; and

b.

does not res­ult from the pre­vi­ous files.

² It shall give no­tice of the re­open­ing of pro­ceed­ings to the per­sons and au­thor­it­ies that pre­vi­ously re­ceived no­tice of the aban­don­ment.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall bring charges in the com­pet­ent court if, based on the res­ults of the in­vest­ig­a­tion, it re­gards the grounds for sus­pi­cion as suf­fi­cient and it is not com­pet­ent to is­sue a sum­mary pen­alty or­der.

² The bring­ing of charges is non-con­test­able.

¹ The in­dict­ment shall in­dic­ate:

a.

the place and the date;

b.

the pub­lic pro­sec­utor bring­ing the charges;

c.

the court com­pet­ent to hear the charges;

d.

the ac­cused and his or her de­fence law­yer;

e.

the per­son suf­fer­ing harm;

f.

as briefly but pre­cisely as pos­sible: the acts that the ac­cused is al­leged to have com­mit­ted with de­tails of the locus, date, time, nature and con­sequences of their com­mis­sion;

g.

the of­fences that are in the opin­ion of the pub­lic pro­sec­utor con­sti­tuted by these acts with de­tails of the ap­plic­able stat­utory pro­vi­sions.

² The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may bring al­tern­at­ive charges or sec­ond­ary charges for the event that the main charges are dis­missed.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall provide the court with the fol­low­ing de­tails and make the fol­low­ing ap­plic­a­tions un­less they are already in­cluded in the in­dict­ment:

a.

the private claimant and any civil claims;

b.

the com­puls­ory meas­ures ordered;

c.

the seized prop­erty and as­sets;

d.

the costs in­curred in the in­vest­ig­a­tion;

e.

if deemed ne­ces­sary, its ap­plic­a­tion for pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion;

f.

its ap­plic­a­tions for sanc­tions or no­tice that these ap­plic­a­tions will be made at the main hear­ing;

g.

its ap­plic­a­tions for sub­sequent ju­di­cial de­cisions;

h.

its re­quest to re­ceive a sum­mons to the main hear­ing.

² If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor is not per­son­ally rep­res­en­ted in court, it may at­tach a fi­nal re­port to the in­dict­ment that ex­plains the cir­cum­stances of the case, which also con­tains com­ments on the as­sess­ment of evid­ence.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall im­me­di­ately serve the in­dict­ment to­geth­er with any fi­nal re­port:

a.

on the ac­cused, provided his or her where­abouts is known;

b.

on the private claimant;

c.

on the vic­tim;

d.

on the com­pet­ent court, to­geth­er with the files and the seized prop­erty and as­sets.

² If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor ap­plies for an or­der of pre­vent­ive de­ten­tion, when fil­ing the rel­ev­ant ap­plic­a­tion, it shall also serve a copy of the in­dict­ment on the com­puls­ory meas­ures court.

¹ On re­ceipt of the in­dict­ment, the pro­ceed­ings be­come pending be­fore the court.

² When the pro­ceed­ings be­come pending, au­thor­ity over the pro­ceed­ings passes to the court.

¹ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall ex­am­ine wheth­er:

a.

the in­dict­ment and the files have been presen­ted in the prop­er man­ner;

b.

the pro­ced­ur­al re­quire­ments are ful­filled;

c.

there are any pro­ced­ur­al im­ped­i­ments.

² If it is de­term­ined in this ex­am­in­a­tion or later in the pro­ceed­ings that a judg­ment can­not be is­sued at this time, the court shall sus­pend the pro­ceed­ings. If re­quired, it shall re­turn the in­dict­ment to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor for amend­ment or cor­rec­tion.

³ The court shall de­cide wheth­er a sus­pen­ded case re­mains pending be­fore it.

⁴ If it is per­man­ently im­possible to is­sue a judg­ment, the court shall aban­don the pro­ceed­ings after grant­ing the parties and oth­er third parties ad­versely af­fected by aban­don­ment the right to be heard. Art­icle 320 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

⁵ If the pro­ceed­ings are only aban­doned in re­la­tion to spe­cif­ic charges on the in­dict­ment aban­doned, the aban­don­ment or­der may be is­sued with the judg­ment.

¹ If the charges are to be con­sidered, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall im­me­di­ately is­sue the or­ders re­quired for the main hear­ing to be con­duc­ted.

² In the case of courts with two or more judges on the bench, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall cir­cu­late the files.

³ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall in­form the vic­tim of his or her rights, un­less the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies have already done so; Art­icle 305 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall de­cide on the evid­ence that may be taken at the main hear­ing. He or she shall no­ti­fy the parties of the com­pos­i­tion of the court and what evid­ence is to be presen­ted.

² The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall at the same time set a dead­line with­in which the parties must sub­mit and jus­ti­fy re­quests for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken; when do­ing so, he or she shall no­ti­fy the parties of the po­ten­tial ef­fect on costs and dam­ages of delayed re­quests for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken.

³ If the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings re­jects a re­quest for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken, he or she shall no­ti­fy the parties of this and give a brief state­ment of the grounds. Re­jec­tion is non-con­test­able, but re­jec­ted re­quests for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken may be sub­mit­ted again at the main hear­ing.

⁴ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall fix a date, time and place for the main hear­ing and sum­mon the parties, to­geth­er with the wit­nesses, per­sons provid­ing in­form­a­tion and ex­pert wit­nesses who are to be ques­tioned.

⁵ He or she shall make a fi­nal de­cision on ap­plic­a­tions for post­pone­ment that are sub­mit­ted be­fore the start of the main hear­ing.

¹ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may sum­mon the parties to a pre­lim­in­ary hear­ing in or­der to settle or­gan­isa­tion­al is­sues.

² The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may sum­mon the parties to dis­cuss a private set­tle­ment in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 316.

³ If it is ex­pec­ted that it will not be pos­sible to take cer­tain evid­ence in the main hear­ing, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may take that evid­ence pri­or to the main hear­ing, en­trust the task to a del­eg­ate of the court or in cases of ur­gency to the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, or ar­range for the evid­ence to be taken through mu­tu­al as­sist­ance pro­ced­ures. The parties shall be giv­en the op­por­tun­ity to par­ti­cip­ate if evid­ence is taken in this way.

¹ The court shall al­low the pub­lic pro­sec­utor the op­por­tun­ity to amend the charges if in its view the cir­cum­stances out­lined in the in­dict­ment could con­sti­tute a dif­fer­ent of­fence but the in­dict­ment does not meet the stat­utory re­quire­ments.

² If fur­ther of­fences by the ac­cused come to light dur­ing the main hear­ing, the court may per­mit the pub­lic pro­sec­utor to add charges to the in­dict­ment.

³ Ad­di­tions are not per­mit­ted if the pro­ceed­ings would be made un­duly com­plex or this would af­fect the jur­is­dic­tion of the court or if a case in­volves co-of­fend­ing or par­ti­cip­a­tion. In these cases, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall com­mence pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings.

⁴ The court may only base its judg­ment on a charge that has been amended or ad­ded to if the party rights of the ac­cused and the private claimant have been ob­served. If ne­ces­sary, it shall ad­journ the main hear­ing.

¹ If the court con­cludes that in pro­ceed­ings pending be­fore it a sen­tence or meas­ure must be con­sidered that ex­ceeds its com­pet­ence, it shall trans­fer the case at the latest fol­low­ing the party sub­mis­sions to the com­pet­ent court. This court shall con­duct its own pro­ced­ure for tak­ing evid­ence.

² The de­cision to trans­fer the case to an­oth­er court is non-con­test­able.

¹ The court shall sit for the en­tire dur­a­tion of the main hear­ing in the com­pos­i­tion re­quired by law and in the pres­ence of a clerk of court.

² If a judge be­comes un­able to at­tend dur­ing the main hear­ing, the en­tire main hear­ing shall be held again un­less the parties waive this re­quire­ment.

³ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may or­der that from the out­set a sub­sti­tute mem­ber of the court par­ti­cip­ates in the hear­ing in or­der to re­place a mem­ber of the court if ne­ces­sary.

⁴ If the court is hear­ing a case in­volving sexu­al of­fences, if so re­ques­ted by the vic­tim at least one of its mem­bers must be of the same gender as the vic­tim. Where the court com­prises one judge sit­ting alone, this rule need not be ap­plied if the case in­volves vic­tims of both genders.

¹ The ac­cused must at­tend the main hear­ing in per­son if:

a.

the case in­volves a felony or mis­de­mean­our; or

b.

the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings or­ders a per­son­al ap­pear­ance.

² Duty de­fence law­yers and the man­dat­ory de­fence law­yers must at­tend the main hear­ing in per­son.

³ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may dis­pense with the re­quire­ment for the ac­cused to at­tend in per­son at the ac­cused's re­quest if the ac­cused shows good cause and his or her pres­ence is not re­quired.

⁴ If the ac­cused fails to at­tend without be­ing ex­cused, the reg­u­la­tions on pro­ceed­ings in ab­sen­tia ap­ply.

⁵ If a duty de­fence law­yer or man­dat­ory de­fence law­yer fails to at­tend, the hear­ing shall be post­poned.

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may sub­mit writ­ten ap­plic­a­tions to the court or be rep­res­en­ted by a pro­sec­utor in court.

² It is neither bound by the leg­al as­sess­ment nor by the ap­plic­a­tions set out in the in­dict­ment.

³ If it re­quests a cus­todi­al sen­tence of more than one year or a cus­todi­al meas­ure, it must be rep­res­en­ted in court by a pro­sec­utor.

⁴ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may re­quire the pub­lic pro­sec­utor to be rep­res­en­ted by a pro­sec­utor in oth­er cases if he or she re­gards it as ne­ces­sary.

⁵ If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor is not rep­res­en­ted by a pro­sec­utor at the main hear­ing, des­pite be­ing re­quired to be rep­res­en­ted, the hear­ing shall be post­poned.

¹ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may dis­pense with the re­quire­ments for a private claimant to at­tend at the claimant's re­quest if his or her pres­ence is not re­quired.

² A third party af­fected by an ap­plic­a­tion for for­feit­ure is not re­quired to ap­pear in per­son.

³ If a private claimant or a third party af­fected by an ap­plic­a­tion for for­feit­ure does not ap­pear in per­son, he or she may be rep­res­en­ted or sub­mit writ­ten ap­plic­a­tions.

¹ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall open the main hear­ing, an­nounce the com­pos­i­tion of the court and es­tab­lish wheth­er the per­sons summoned are present.

² The court and the parties may then raise pre­lim­in­ary is­sues in par­tic­u­lar re­lat­ing to:

a.

the com­pet­ence of the charge;

b.

pro­ced­ur­al re­quire­ments;

c.

pro­ced­ur­al im­ped­i­ments;

d.

the files and the evid­ence taken;

e.

the ad­mis­sion of the pub­lic to the hear­ing;

f.

the di­vi­sion of the hear­ing.

³ The court de­cides im­me­di­ately on the pre­lim­in­ary is­sues after grant­ing the parties present the right to be heard.

⁴ If the parties raise sup­ple­ment­ary is­sues dur­ing the main hear­ing, the court shall deal with these in the same way as pre­lim­in­ary is­sues.

⁵ The court may ad­journ the main hear­ing at any time in or­der to deal with pre­lim­in­ary or sup­ple­ment­ary is­sues, and to add to or have the pub­lic pro­sec­utor add to the files or the evid­ence.

¹ The fact that any pre­lim­in­ary is­sues have been dealt with has the fol­low­ing con­sequences:

a.

the main hear­ing must be con­duc­ted to its com­ple­tion without un­ne­ces­sary in­ter­rup­tions;

b.

the charge may no longer be with­drawn and, sub­ject to Art­icle 333, may no longer be amended;

c.

parties re­quired to at­tend may only leave the ven­ue for the hear­ing with the con­sent of the court; if a party leaves the ven­ue for the hear­ing, the hear­ing shall nev­er­the­less con­tin­ue.

² After any pre­lim­in­ary is­sues have been dealt with, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall an­nounce the ap­plic­a­tions made by the pub­lic pro­sec­utor, un­less the parties dis­pense with this re­quire­ment.

¹ The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings or a mem­ber of the court that they have ap­poin­ted shall con­duct the ex­am­in­a­tion hear­ings.

² The oth­er mem­bers of the court and the parties may re­quest the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings to ask sup­ple­ment­ary ques­tions or re­quest their au­thor­isa­tion to ask them them­selves.

³ At the start of the be­gin­ning of the pro­ced­ure for tak­ing evid­ence, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall ques­tion the ac­cused in de­tail on his or her per­son­al cir­cum­stances, on the charge and on the res­ults of the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings.

¹ The court may at the re­quest of the ac­cused or the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or ex of­fi­cio di­vide the main hear­ing in­to two parts; in do­ing so, it may stip­u­late that:

a.

in the first part of the pro­ceed­ings only the of­fence and the is­sue of the ac­cused's guilt will be con­sidered, and that in the second the con­sequences of con­vic­tion or ac­quit­tal shall be con­sidered; or

b.

in the first part of the pro­ceed­ings only the of­fence will be con­sidered and in the second the is­sue of the ac­cused's guilt to­geth­er with the con­sequences of con­vic­tion or ac­quit­tal will be con­sidered.

² The de­cision on the di­vi­sion of the main hear­ing is non-con­test­able.

³ In the event of the di­vi­sion of the pro­ceed­ings, the per­son­al cir­cum­stances of the ac­cused may only be con­sidered in the main hear­ing in the event of that the ac­cused is found guilty, un­less that the ac­cused's per­son­al cir­cum­stances are of sig­ni­fic­ance in as­sess­ing the ob­ject­ive facts of the case or the state of mind of the ac­cused.

⁴ The ver­dict shall be giv­en fol­low­ing the de­lib­er­a­tions, but it may only be con­tested in con­junc­tion with the en­tire judg­ment.

¹ The court shall take new evid­ence and add to evid­ence already taken that is in­com­plete.

² It shall take evid­ence again that was not taken in the prop­er man­ner in the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings.

³ It shall take evid­ence again that was taken in the prop­er man­ner in the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings if dir­ect know­ledge of the evid­ence ap­pears ne­ces­sary in or­der to reach a de­cision.

If the court in­tends to make an as­sess­ment of the leg­al as­pects of the case that dif­fers from that of pub­lic pro­sec­utor in the in­dict­ment, it shall give no­tice of this to the parties present and give them the op­por­tun­ity to com­ment.

Be­fore con­clud­ing the pro­ced­ure for tak­ing evid­ence, the court shall give the parties the op­por­tun­ity to sub­mit ad­di­tion­al re­quests for fur­ther evid­ence to be taken.

¹ On con­clu­sion of the pro­ced­ure for tak­ing evid­ence, the parties shall present and jus­ti­fy their ap­plic­a­tions. The parties shall make their sub­mis­sions in the fol­low­ing or­der:

a.

the pub­lic pro­sec­utor;

b.

the private claimant;

c.

third parties af­fected by an ap­plic­a­tion for for­feit­ure (Art. 69–73 SCC¹⁷⁴);

d.

the ac­cused or his or her de­fence law­yer.

² The parties have the right to make a second party sub­mis­sion.

¹ The ac­cused is en­titled to have the last word on con­clu­sion of the party sub­mis­sions.

² The dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall then de­clare the party hear­ing closed.

¹ The court shall re­tire on con­clu­sion of the party hear­ing in or­der to de­lib­er­ate on the judg­ment in private.

² The clerk of court shall par­ti­cip­ate in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city.

If the court is not yet in a po­s­i­tion to is­sue a judg­ment in the case, it may de­cide to take ad­di­tion­al evid­ence and the re­open the party hear­ing.

¹ The court is bound by the facts of the case set out in the in­dict­ment but not by the leg­al as­sess­ment of the case therein.

² It shall take ac­count of the evid­ence taken in the pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings and main pro­ceed­ings.

¹ If the court is able to de­cide on the sub­stance of the charge, it shall reach a ver­dict, and a de­cision on the sanc­tions and oth­er con­sequences.

² It shall reach its de­cision on all points of the judg­ment by a simple ma­jor­ity. Each mem­ber is ob­liged to vote.

³ It shall give no­tice of its judg­ment in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 84.