Facts
The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) requested Switzerland to arrest Chinese national [A.] for extradition to the USA. The arrest took place on 13 June 2019. The FOJ ordered the extradition, reserving the examination of the political offense exception raised by [A.] to the Federal Criminal Court. [A.] lodged a complaint against the extradition decision, and the Federal Criminal Court overturned the decision. Subsequently, [A.] requested immediate release from extradition detention, which the FOJ rejected. The Federal Criminal Court overturned this decision and ordered the release from detention.
The FOJ filed a request for a superprovisional measure, and the Federal Court granted the request and ordered the provisional maintenance of detention. The FOJ now requests that the release from detention decision of the Federal Criminal Court be revoked.
Considerations
The Federal Court must examine whether the release from detention decision of the Federal Criminal Court is to be revoked. The complaint is admissible, as it is a particularly significant case and the requirements of Art. 84 para. 1 FSCA are met. The Federal Criminal Court ordered the release from detention on the grounds that the extradition requirements were not met, as there was a lack of dual criminality.
The FOJ assumes that it is unclear how the situation would be if the Federal Criminal Court were to reject the extradition and subsequently also lift the extradition detention. The Federal Court has dealt with this question in a previous judgment and found that in such cases, the FOJ must lodge a complaint and request the maintenance of extradition detention as a precautionary measure no later than the day after the service of the release from detention decision.
In the present case,…