Credit for Time in Pretrial Detention in Conviction for Rape and Threat

Facts

The appellant [A.X.] was convicted by the High Court of the Canton of Zurich on August 26, 2013 of rape, multiple threats, multiple simple assault, and repeated acts of violence, and sentenced to a custodial sentence of 4.5 years. He was credited with 383 days of pretrial and preventive detention. In a separate proceeding, [A.X.] was convicted by the District Court of Zurich on March 19, 2013 of threat and sentenced to a conditional fine of 90 daily rates, with 22 days of detention credited. [A.X.] appealed both judgments. The Federal Supreme Court consolidated the two proceedings, as they were closely related in substance.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court held that the lower court had wrongly credited the 22 days of detention from the threat case to the conditional fine. According to the principle of comprehensive crediting, this detention should have been credited to the custodial sentence from the conviction for rape, etc. Since the lower court had not consolidated the…