Swiss Criminal Procedure Code
(Criminal Procedure Code, CrimPC)

¹ If the crim­in­al justice au­thor­ity files a re­quest for the re­mov­al of the seals, the fol­low­ing are re­spons­ible for the de­cision:

a.

in pre­lim­in­ary pro­ceed­ings and in pro­ceed­ings be­fore the court of first in­stance: the com­puls­ory meas­ures court;

b.

in oth­er cases: the dir­ect­or of pro­ceed­ings in the court be­fore which the case is pending.

² If, after re­ceiv­ing the re­quest for the re­mov­al of seals, the court es­tab­lishes that the hold­er is not the same per­son as the pro­pri­et­or, it shall in­form the pro­pri­et­or of the seal­ing. On re­quest, it shall per­mit the pro­pri­et­or to in­spect the case files.

³ The court shall al­low the pro­pri­et­or a non-ex­tend­able peri­od of 10 days, with­in which to ob­ject to the re­quest for the re­mov­al of seals and state to what ex­tent he or she wishes to main­tain the seal­ing. Fail­ure to re­spond is deemed equi­val­ent to the with­draw­ing the re­quest for seal­ing.

⁴ If the mat­ter is ready for a de­cision to be made, the court shall is­sue a fi­nal de­cision with­in 10 days of re­ceipt of the re­sponse in writ­ten pro­ceed­ings.

⁵ Oth­er­wise, the court shall with­in 30 days of re­ceipt of the re­sponse ar­range a private hear­ing with the pub­lic pro­sec­utor and the pro­pri­et­or. The pro­pri­et­or must cred­ibly ex­plain why and to what ex­tent the seals should not be re­moved from the re­cords or items. The court shall is­sue its de­cision im­me­di­ately; the de­cision is fi­nal.

⁶ The court may:

a.

call in an ex­pert in or­der to ex­am­ine the con­tent of re­cords and items, be gran­ted ac­cess to the same or to guar­an­tee their in­teg­rity;

b.

des­ig­nate po­lice of­ficers as ex­perts in or­der that they are gran­ted ac­cess to the con­tent of the re­cords and items or guar­an­tee their in­teg­rity.

⁷ If the pro­pri­et­or fails to at­tend the hear­ing without provid­ing an ex­cuse and if they do not ar­range to be rep­res­en­ted either, the re­quest for seal­ing is deemed to have been with­drawn. If the pub­lic pro­sec­utor fails to at­tend, the court shall de­cide in its ab­sence.