Facts
In a mutual legal assistance request from the American authorities, they demanded the complete documents for several designated bank accounts and the interrogation of senior employees of the affected banks as witnesses. The Federal Office for Police Matters declared the mutual legal assistance admissible, whereupon several account holders filed an objection, which the Federal Office, however, rejected.
The account holders then filed an administrative court appeal against the Federal Office's decision not to enter into the matter. The Federal Court entered into the appeal, as the account holders, as directly affected parties, are entitled to take legal remedies against the transmission of the account documents and the witness interrogation protocols.
Considerations
The Federal Court states that the account holders are generally not entitled to appeal against the transmission of the witness interrogation protocols, as the decisive element is not the content of the protocols, but the manner in which they were obtained.
However, this practice could undermine the legal protection of the account holders, as foreign authorities could have the interrogation protocols transmitted instead of the account documents and thus exclude any legal remedy of the account holders. To prevent this, the account holders must be granted the right to appeal against the transmission of interrogation protocols if they…