Facts
The case concerns an administrative penal proceeding against [X.] , a natural person, who was charged for the incorrect maintenance of flight logbooks for aircraft of [A. AG] in the years 2010 to 2012. The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) initially issued a penal order against [X.] , to which he filed an objection. Subsequently, on 22 October 2015, the FOCA issued a penal order, fining [X.] CHF 850.-- for 17 missing entries in the flight logbooks. [X.] filed another objection, upon which the matter was referred for judicial assessment.
The District Court of Bülach sentenced [X.] on 4 May 2016 to a fine of CHF 4,000.-- for multiple negligent violations of various aviation law provisions. [X.] appealed, upon which the High Court of the Canton of Zurich on 10 January 2017 confirmed the guilty verdict but reduced the sentence to CHF 850.--.
[X.] filed a criminal law appeal with the Federal Supreme Court. He requested that the lower court's judgment be set aside, the proceedings be discontinued due to the statute of limitations, insofar as violations before 4 May 2012 are concerned, and that he be found guilty and appropriately punished for the violations on 6 and 7 July 2012.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It stated that according to its established case law (BGE 133 IV 112, BGE 139 IV 62, BGE 142 IV 11 and BGE 142 IV 276), the penal order under Art. 70 of the Administrative Penal Law (VStrR) is to be qualified as a first-instance judgment within the meaning of Art. 97 para. 3 of the Criminal Code (StGB) and thus interrupts the statute of limitations. The penal order of 22 October 2015 had therefore interrupted the statute of…