Swiss Criminal Code

¹ The court shall or­der in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion if the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted murder, in­ten­tion­al hom­icide, ser­i­ous as­sault, rape, rob­bery, host­age tak­ing, ar­son, en­dan­ger­ing life or an­oth­er of­fence that car­ries a max­im­um sen­tence of five or more years by which he has caused or in­ten­ded to cause ser­i­ous det­ri­ment to the phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity of an­oth­er per­son, and if:⁵⁹

a.

due to the per­son­al­ity traits of the of­fend­er, the cir­cum­stances of the of­fence and his gen­er­al per­son­al cir­cum­stances, it is ser­i­ously ex­pec­ted that he will com­mit fur­ther of­fences of the same type; or

b.

due to a per­man­ent or long-term men­tal dis­order of con­sid­er­able grav­ity that was a factor in the of­fence, it is ser­i­ously ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er will com­mit fur­ther of­fences of the same type and the or­der­ing of a meas­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 59 does not prom­ise any suc­cess.

^1bis The court shall or­der lifelong in­car­cer­a­tion if the of­fend­er has com­mit­ted murder, in­ten­tion­al hom­icide, ser­i­ous as­sault, rob­bery, rape, in­de­cent as­sault, false im­pris­on­ment or ab­duc­tion, host­age-tak­ing, en­forced dis­ap­pear­ance of per­sons, traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings, gen­o­cide, or a felony un­der the head­ing of crimes against hu­man­ity or war crimes (Title Twelve) and if the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments are met:⁶⁰

a. the of­fend­er, by com­mit­ting the of­fence, caused or in­ten­ded to cause ser­i­ous det­ri­ment to the phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity of an­oth­er per­son.

b.

There is a high prob­ab­il­ity that the of­fend­er will com­mit one of these felon­ies again.

c.

The of­fend­er is as­sessed as be­ing per­man­ently un­treat­able, as the treat­ment of­fers no long-term pro­spect of suc­cess.⁶¹

² The ex­e­cu­tion of the cus­todi­al sen­tence takes pri­or­ity over in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion. The pro­vi­sions on pa­role in re­la­tion to the cus­todi­al sen­tence (Art. 86–88) do not ap­ply.⁶²

³ If dur­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of the cus­todi­al sen­tence, it is ex­pec­ted that the of­fend­er will prove to be of good be­ha­viour when at liberty, the court shall or­der pa­role from the cus­todi­al sen­tence at the earli­est from the time when the of­fend­er has served two thirds of a spe­cif­ic cus­todi­al sen­tence or 15 years of a life sen­tence. The court that ordered in­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion is re­spons­ible for the de­cision on pa­role. In ad­di­tion, Art­icle 64a ap­plies.⁶³

⁴ In­def­in­ite in­car­cer­a­tion is ex­ecuted in a thera­peut­ic in­sti­tu­tion or in a pen­al in­sti­tu­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 76 para­graph 2. Pub­lic safety must be guar­an­teed. The of­fend­er re­ceives psy­chi­at­ric care if this is ne­ces­sary.