Facts
The appellant X. was found guilty of a serious offense and an offense against the Federal Act on Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (Narcotics Act) by the Criminal Court of the District of La Côte. He filed a notice of appeal against this judgment through his lawyer on October 28, 2015. However, the statement of appeal was only filed the day after the expiry of the 20-day deadline, due to an error by the lawyer's secretariat. The Criminal Appeals Court of the Cantonal Court rejected X.'s request for restoration of the deadline, considering that the lawyer's fault was attributable to his client.
X. then filed a criminal appeal with the Federal Tribunal, concluding for the restoration of the deadline to file his appeal.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal considered that, in the context of a mandatory defense as in this case, the serious fault of the lawyer cannot be imputed to the accused when this would substantially impair the rights of the defense of the latter.
Indeed, according to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Federal Tribunal, the right to effective defense implies that the accused benefits from competent, diligent and effective legal assistance. When the authorities tolerate a serious negligence of the lawyer to the detriment of the accused, this can constitute a violation of the rights of the defense.
In this case, the Federal Tribunal considered that the lawyer's failure, which resulted in the late filing of the appeal, constituted serious…