Judgment on the Violation of the Duty to Record Police Interviews

Facts

The Federal Supreme Court decided in a criminal case of negligent bodily harm as follows: - The appellant [X.] was convicted by the Cantonal Court of St. Gallen for negligent bodily harm. - [X.] filed a criminal appeal against this judgment. - The Federal Supreme Court set aside the judgment and remanded the case to the Cantonal Court for a new assessment. The reason for this was that the police interviews of the appellant and the co-participant [A.] were only documented as audio recordings, but no written records were created. This violates the recording regulations of the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure. The Federal Supreme Court ruled that the lower court must take this violation of the rules of evidence into account.

Considerations

In its reasoning, the Federal Supreme Court stated the following: - The Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that statements by parties, witnesses and other participants in the proceedings must be recorded in writing. A mere audio recording is not sufficient to comply with the recording regulations. - The recording serves to establish the facts of the case and to verify compliance with the procedural regulations. Therefore, the…