Facts
The case concerns the dismissal of criminal proceedings against the respondent for false accusation and false testimony. The appellant had filed a criminal complaint against the respondent after the latter had previously accused him of sexual coercion and simple assault. The appellant submitted a video recording that he had made of the incident on August 3, 2005 as evidence.
The lower court classified the video recording as illegally obtained evidence, as the respondent had consented to a "photo shoot" but not to the making of a video recording. Therefore, the video recording was not admissible. Furthermore, the prosecuting authorities could not have obtained the evidence themselves at the time of its creation, as there was no urgent suspicion of an offense.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower court. It stated that the question of whether the respondent had consented to the making of a video recording was a question of fact, which the Federal Supreme Court could only review for arbitrariness. The lower court had reasonably determined that the respondent had only consented to a "photo shoot" and not to a video recording.
Even though the video recording was illegally obtained, a balancing of interests must be carried out to determine whether the evidence is nevertheless admissible. However, the Federal Supreme Court did…