Swiss Criminal Code

3. Sus­pen­sion and aban­don­ment of pro­ceed­ings.

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

a.⁴

the vic­tim:

1.

is the spouse of the of­fend­er and the of­fence was com­mit­ted dur­ing the mar­riage or with­in a year of di­vorce, or

2.

is the re­gistered part­ner of the of­fend­er and the of­fence was com­mit­ted dur­ing the re­gistered part­ner­ship or with­in a year of its dis­sol­u­tion, or

3.

is the hetero- or ho­mo­sexu­al part­ner of the of­fend­er or the ex-part­ner of the of­fend­er if they have been sep­ar­ated for less than a year; and

b.⁵

the vic­tim or, if he or she lacks leg­al ca­pa­city, his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive re­quests this to be done; and

c.⁶

sus­pen­sion ap­pears ap­pro­pri­ate in or­der to sta­bil­ise or im­prove the vic­tim’s situ­ation.

²The pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court may dur­ing the peri­od of sus­pen­sion re­quire the ac­cused to at­tend a course on vi­ol­ence pre­ven­tion. The pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court shall no­ti­fy the au­thor­ity or or­gan­isa­tion com­pet­ent un­der can­ton­al law for mat­ters re­lat­ing to do­mest­ic vi­ol­ence about the meas­ures taken.⁷

³Sus­pen­sion is not per­mit­ted if:

a.

the ac­cused has been con­victed of a felony or mis­de­mean­our against life and limb, against liberty, or against sexu­al in­teg­rity;

b.

he or she has re­ceived a sen­tence or been made sub­ject to a meas­ure; and

c.

the vic­tim of the of­fence is a per­son lis­ted in para­graph 1 let­ter a.⁸

⁴Sus­pen­sion is lim­ited to six months. The pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court shall re­sume the pro­ceed­ings if the vic­tim or, if he or she lacks leg­al ca­pa­city, his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive re­quests this to be done or it tran­spires that the sus­pen­sion has neither sta­bil­ised nor im­proved the vic­tim’s situ­ation.⁹

⁵Be­fore the sus­pen­sion ends, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor or the court shall con­duct an as­sess­ment. If the vic­tim’s situ­ation has sta­bil­ised or im­proved, it shall or­der the aban­don­ment of the pro­ceed­ings.¹⁰