Facts
On January 12, 2010, the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Canton of Zug brought charges against X. for criminal acts against property, forgery of documents, and commercial money laundering. On August 16, 2011, the Criminal Court of the Canton of Zug convicted X. of commercial fraud, failure to keep accounts, and forgery of documents, and sentenced him to an unconditional prison term of 12 months. The judgment was directly delivered to X. in reasoned form on September 7, 2011.
X. filed an appeal on September 27, 2011, whereupon the Presidency of the High Court of the Canton of Zug did not enter into the matter on November 11, 2011, due to the failure to observe the time limit for filing the appeal statement.
X. filed a criminal law complaint with the request to set aside the presidential order and instruct the High Court to enter into the appeal. Alternatively, it should be determined that he had observed the appeal deadline and filed the appeal in a timely manner.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court states that according to the case law, if a first instance judgment is not orally or in writing in the operative part, but is directly delivered to the parties in reasoned form, an announcement of the appeal is not necessary. It is sufficient to submit an appeal statement to the appeal court, for which the appellant has 20 days.
In the present…