Federal Act
on International Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters
(Mutual Assistance Act, IMAC)

¹ As a rule, a re­quest shall be gran­ted only if the re­quest­ing State guar­an­tees re­cipro­city. The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice²⁶ of the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice (Fed­er­al Of­fice) shall ob­tain a guar­an­tee of re­cipro­city if this is con­sidered ne­ces­sary.

² Re­cipro­city is in par­tic­u­lar not re­quired for the ser­vice of doc­u­ments or if the ex­e­cu­tion of a re­quest:

a.

seems ad­vis­able due to the type of of­fence or to the ne­ces­sity of com­bat­ing cer­tain of­fences;

b.²⁷

is likely to im­prove the situ­ation of the de­fend­ant or the pro­spects of his so­cial re­hab­il­it­a­tion; or

c.

serves to cla­ri­fy an of­fence against a Swiss na­tion­al.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may, with­in the scope of this Act, provide oth­er States with a guar­an­tee of re­cipro­city.