Facts
The appellant [A.] was convicted by the Appellationsgericht of the canton of Basel-Stadt for multiple rape, sexual coercion and sexual acts with a child. The offenses were committed between approximately mid-2002 and approximately the end of November 2003, when the respondent [B.] was between 11 and 12 years old. The appellant was sentenced to a prison term of three years, with 30 months on probation. In addition, he was ordered to pay compensation of CHF 30,000 and costs to [B.] .
The appellant filed a complaint with the Federal Supreme Court and requested that he be acquitted of the charges and that the conviction for compensation and costs be lifted. Alternatively, he requested that he be sentenced to a conditional fine of 60 daily rates of CHF 30.-- with a probation period of two years and a compensation payment of CHF 2,000.--.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the complaint. It found that the indictment did not violate the principle of indictment, as it described the acts of which the accused was suspected in such a precise manner that the charges were sufficiently concretized in both objective and subjective terms.
The court found that the lower court was not required to retake the testimony of respondent 2, as the evidence had already been gathered in the preliminary proceedings and the first-instance main proceedings, and the lower court was not required to take her testimony as additional evidence ex officio.
The Federal Supreme Court found that the lower court had not arbitrarily evaluated the evidence. The lower court had deemed the statements of respondent 2 to be credible and had weighed the evidence.
The court found…