Facts
The case concerns a Kosovar who entered Switzerland at the age of 26 and has lived there for more than 13 years. He was convicted by the District Court of Aarau and the High Court of the Canton of Aargau for multiple counts of fraud, assault, simple bodily harm, property damage, and violations of the Narcotics Act. The courts imposed a suspended custodial sentence and a fine, as well as a five-year expulsion from the country.
The appellant claimed that the expulsion violated his rights under the Federal Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as well as the Free Movement Agreement (FMA) between Switzerland and the EU. He argued that the lower court had arbitrarily established the facts and wrongly denied the existence of a hardship case.
Considerations
The Federal Court states that according to Art. 66a of the Swiss Criminal Code, a mandatory expulsion for 5-15 years is provided for if the foreigner is convicted of one of the offenses mentioned in this provision. Exceptionally, the court may refrain from expulsion if this would cause the foreigner a severe personal hardship and the public interest in expulsion does not outweigh the foreigner's private interest in remaining in Switzerland.
The Federal Court examines whether the lower court correctly applied the criteria for the application of the hardship clause. It concludes that the lower court rightly denied the existence of a severe personal hardship. The appellant had only come to Switzerland at the age of 26 and had spent his formative childhood and youth years in Portugal.…