Facts
The Public Prosecutor's Office in Florence is conducting an investigation against various persons for tax fraud and other offenses. By a request for legal assistance dated March 11, 2011, it asked the Swiss authorities to release bank documents. The Federal Office of Justice transferred the execution of the request for legal assistance to the Federal Customs Administration (Federal Customs Directorate). The latter commissioned the Zurich Customs Investigation Section to carry out the legal assistance measures. At the request of [X.] , documents relating to an account in his name were sealed.
The Federal Customs Directorate requested the II. Appeals Chamber of the Federal Criminal Court to unseal the documents. However, it did not enter into the matter and denied its jurisdiction. Thereupon, both the Federal Customs Directorate and the Federal Office of Justice filed an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court decided that the Federal Criminal Court has jurisdiction to decide on the request for unsealing. This results from an interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Federal Act on International Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (IMAC) and the Administrative Criminal Law Act (VStrR).
According to Art. 9 sentence 2 IMAC, Articles 246-248 of the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) apply mutatis mutandis to the search of records and the sealing. Under Art. 248 para. 3 CCP, the compulsory measures court decides on requests for unsealing in the preliminary proceedings. Since there is no…