Facts
The case concerns an appellant (X.) who was accused of acting as a mediator in the trade of heroin between December 4, 2006 and January 10, 2007. The District Court of Muri convicted him of a qualified violation of the Narcotics Act and sentenced him to 2 ½ years' imprisonment. On appeal by X. and the public prosecutor, the High Court of the Canton of Aargau increased the sentence to 3 ½ years.
X. filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Supreme Court, requesting to be acquitted or alternatively sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of a maximum of 6 months. He argued that the new Narcotics Act, which no longer expressly mentions mediation as a criminal act, is the more lenient law and must therefore be applied.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the complaint. It stated that while the partial revision of the Narcotics Act of March 20, 2008 no longer expressly lists mediation as a criminal act, the legislator did not intend any substantive changes. The wording "in any other way procures for another" in Art. 19 para. 1 lit. c NarcA must be interpreted as generally including the activity of mediation in the sense of the previous case law.
The…