Swiss Criminal Procedure Code

¹Where a party to the pro­ceed­ings does not un­der­stand the lan­guage of the pro­ceed­ings or is un­able to ex­press him- or her­self ad­equately, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings shall ap­point an in­ter­pret­er. In minor or ur­gent cases, the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings may, if the per­son con­cerned con­sents, dis­pense with ap­point­ing an in­ter­pret­er provided the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings and the clerk of court have an ad­equate com­mand of the for­eign lan­guage con­cerned.

²Even if he or she has a de­fence law­yer, the ac­cused shall be no­ti­fied in a lan­guage that he or she un­der­stands, either or­ally or in writ­ing, of at least the es­sen­tial con­tent of the most im­port­ant pro­ced­ur­al acts. There is no right to have all pro­ced­ur­al acts and files trans­lated in full.

³Files that are not sub­mis­sions made by parties shall, if re­quired, be trans­lated in writ­ing or or­ally trans­lated for the re­cord of pro­ceed­ings.

⁴A per­son of the same sex must be ap­poin­ted to trans­late ques­tions to be put to the vic­tim of a sexu­al of­fence where the vic­tim so re­quests and it is pos­sible without caus­ing an un­reas­on­able delay to the pro­ceed­ings.

⁵The pro­vi­sions on ex­pert wit­nesses (Art. 73, 105, 182-191) ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to trans­lat­ors and in­ter­pret­ers.