Swiss Criminal Procedure Code
(Criminal Procedure Code, CrimPC)

¹ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor may sus­pend an in­vest­ig­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar if:

a.

the iden­tity of the of­fend­er or his or her where­abouts is un­known is or there are oth­er tem­por­ary pro­ced­ur­al im­ped­i­ments;

b.

the out­come of the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings de­pends on oth­er pro­ceed­ings and it seems ap­pro­pri­ate to await their con­clu­sion;

c.

private set­tle­ment pro­ceed­ings are on­go­ing and it seems ap­pro­pri­ate to await their out­come;

d.

a de­cision on the sub­stance of the case de­pends on how the con­sequences of the of­fence de­vel­op.

² In the case of para­graph 1 let­ter c, the peri­od of sus­pen­sion shall be lim­ited to 3 months; it may be ex­ten­ded on one oc­ca­sion by a fur­ther 3 months.

³ Be­fore sus­pend­ing pro­ceed­ings, the pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall gath­er any evid­ence that is at risk of be­ing lost. If the iden­tity of the of­fend­er or his or her where­abouts is un­known, it shall or­der that he or she be traced.

⁴ The pub­lic pro­sec­utor shall give no­tice of the sus­pen­sion to the ac­cused, the private claimant and the vic­tims.

⁵ The pro­ced­ure is oth­er­wise gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on the aban­don­ment of pro­ceed­ings.