Facts
By a judgment of January 13, 2012, the Criminal Court of the District of Sarine found X. guilty of several offenses and sentenced him to a custodial sentence of four and a half years. It also ordered the continuation of an outpatient psychiatric treatment initiated during the early execution of the sentence.
On November 6, 2013, the Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions and Prisons Service of the Canton of Fribourg requested the Criminal Appeals Court of the Fribourg Cantonal Tribunal to examine the possibility of changing the sanction to institutionalization. After several remand decisions, the Criminal Court of the District of Sarine ultimately refused to order the institutionalization of X. in February 2016.
The Fribourg Public Prosecutor's Office then filed a criminal appeal with the Federal Tribunal, primarily concluding that X. should be subject to an institutionalization measure.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal dismissed the Public Prosecutor's appeal. It considered that Article 65 paragraph 2 of the Swiss Criminal Code (CC) does not allow for the direct conversion of an outpatient treatment carried out during the execution of the custodial sentence into institutionalization.
According to the case law, Article 65 CC only applies to the transformation of a custodial sentence (or institutionalization) into an institutional measure provided for in Articles 59 to 61 CC. The conversion of an outpatient measure into an institutional measure must comply with the conditions of Article 63b paragraph 5 CC, which…