Swiss Criminal Code

¹ If the pris­on in­mate has served two thirds of his sen­tence, provided this amounts to at least three months, he shall be re­leased on pa­role by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity if this is jus­ti­fied by his con­duct while in cus­tody and it is not ex­pec­ted that he will com­mit fur­ther felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours.

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall as­sess ex of­fi­cio wheth­er the in­mate may be re­leased on pa­role. It shall ob­tain a re­port from the in­sti­tu­tion board. The pris­on in­mate shall be gran­ted a hear­ing.

³ If pa­role is re­fused, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity must re­as­sess the ques­tion of wheth­er pa­role may be gran­ted at least once each year.

⁴ If the pris­on in­mate has served half of his sen­tence, provided this amounts to at least three months, he may be re­leased on pa­role by way of ex­cep­tion, if ex­cep­tion­al per­son­al cir­cum­stances jus­ti­fy this.

⁵ In the case of per­sons serving a life sen­tence, pa­role un­der para­graph 1 is pos­sible at the earli­est after 15 years, and un­der para­graph 4 at the earli­est after ten years.