Failure to proceed with the indictment violates the principle of indictment; Jurisdiction of the Federal Criminal Court for administrative offenses (administrative criminal proceedings) based on the perpetuatio fori

Facts

The appellant [X.] was indicted by the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office for having, as the responsible director and sole agent of his company [Y. AG] , repeatedly delivered goods to Iran without the required permit from SECO between August 3, 2004 and October 2006. In its first judgment of March 26, 2009, the Federal Criminal Court did not proceed with the indictment on count I.B and found [X.] guilty of intentional violation of the Goods Control Act under Article 14 para. 1 lit. a GKG in count I.A.

[X.] appealed the criminal judgment to the Federal Supreme Court. The Federal Supreme Court upheld the appeal, set aside the judgment of the Federal Criminal Court and remanded the case for a new decision. In its new decision of January 18, 2010, the Federal Criminal Court did not proceed with the indictment and referred the matter for any further official action to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court decided that the Federal Criminal Court had jurisdiction to also examine the indictment facts for a possible administrative offense under Art. 15a GKG. The Federal Criminal Court should not have failed to proceed with the indictment, but should have…