Offsetting of claims relating to a monetary penalty and procedural costs against the awarded indemnity

Facts

By a judgment of April 8, 2016, the Criminal Appeals Court of the Cantonal Tribunal of the Canton of Vaud awarded X. an indemnity of 1,215 francs and 567 francs for the expenses incurred in exercising his procedural rights at first instance and on appeal, and offset these amounts against the court costs of the first and second instances imposed on X.

X. filed a criminal appeal with the Federal Tribunal against this judgment, concluding to the removal of the provision ordering the offsetting.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal dismisses the appeal. It considers that Art. 442 para. 4 CrimPC explicitly confers the competence on the criminal authorities to order the offsetting, and that this competence is not reserved solely for the cost recovery authority.

Although the Message of the Federal Council on the unification of criminal procedure law seems to indicate in its French version that only the cost recovery authority would be competent, the…