Inadmissible conversion of an appeal into a cross-appeal after the deadline has expired

Facts

The case concerns a defendant (A.) who was convicted by the District Court of Laufenburg for various offenses. Both A. and several private prosecutors filed appeals against the judgment. The public prosecutor's office then declared a cross-appeal to A.'s appeal. A. in turn declared a cross-appeal to the appeals of the private prosecutors. Later, A. withdrew his main appeal, but wanted to maintain his cross-appeal. The public prosecutor's office then requested that A.'s cross-appeal not be admitted.

The High Court initially admitted A.'s cross-appeal, but partially overturned the first-instance judgment. The Office of the Attorney General then filed a complaint with the Federal Supreme Court, requesting that A.'s cross-appeal be declared inadmissible.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court upheld the complaint of the Office of the Attorney General. It stated that the same motions of a party cannot be the subject of an appeal and a cross-appeal in parallel. A cross-appeal is only possible on the points that are not already the subject of that party's appeal.

A conversion of an appeal into a cross-appeal after the deadline for the cross-appeal pursuant to Art. 400 para. 3 lit. b CrimPC is not permissible. The…