Swiss Criminal Procedure Code

¹The fol­low­ing per­sons may re­fuse to testi­fy:

a.

the ac­cused's spouse or the per­son who co­hab­its with the ac­cused;

b.

any­one who has a child with the ac­cused;

c.

any­one who is re­lated to the ac­cused in dir­ect line or by mar­riage;

d.

the ac­cused's sib­lings and stepsib­lings and the spouse of a sib­ling or stepsib­ling;

e.

the sib­lings and stepsib­lings of the ac­cused's spouse, and the spouse of such a sib­ling or stepsib­ling;

f.

the ac­cused's foster par­ents, foster chil­dren and foster sib­lings;

g.¹

a per­son ap­poin­ted to act as guard­i­an or deputy for the ac­cused.

²The right to re­fuse to testi­fy un­der para­graph 1 let­ters a and f re­mains val­id if the mar­riage is dis­solved or if in the case of a foster fam­ily², the foster re­la­tion­ship no longer ap­plies.

³A re­gistered part­ner­ship is deemed equi­val­ent to mar­riage.

⁴The right to re­fuse to testi­fy ceases to ap­ply if:

a.³

the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings con­cern an of­fence un­der Art­icles 111–113, 122, 124, 140, 184, 185, 187, 189, 190 or 191 SCC⁴; and

b.

the crim­in­al act was dir­ec­ted at a per­son to whom the wit­ness in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1–3 is re­lated.