Facts
The complainant, [A.] , was sentenced by the District Court of Meilen to a prison term of 8 months for multiple pornography offenses under Art. 197 para. 4 and para. 5 SCC, which was suspended with a probation period of 2 years. The District Court ordered a lifetime ban on activities with minors pursuant to Art. 67 para. 3 lit. d no. 2 SCC. The complainant appealed to the Federal Court and requested that the lifetime ban on activities be lifted.
The lower court, the High Court of the Canton of Zurich, I. Criminal Chamber, upheld the decision of the first instance to the extent that it was contested. The complainant had downloaded, stored, and made available for download by others a total of 68 child pornographic files with actual acts involving children, one file with virtual child pornography, 198 films with sexual violence, and 7 films with sexual acts with animals, knowingly and intentionally, between December 12, 2017, and February 27, 2019.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined whether the lifetime ban on activities under Art. 67 para. 3 lit. d no. 2 SCC was justified. The complainant argued that a lifetime ban on activities constituted a serious infringement of his constitutional rights to personal freedom and economic freedom and violated the principle of proportionality.
The Federal Court stated that a lifetime ban on activities under Art. 67 para. 3 lit. d no. 2 SCC was generally mandatory if the offender was convicted of pornography under Art. 197 para. 1, para. 3, para. 4, or para. 5 SCC. An exception was only possible in particularly minor cases, if the ban was not necessary to prevent the offender from committing further crimes.
The Federal Court found that the complainant had played an active role in the repeated dissemination of low-level child pornography and that the lower court had assessed the…