Facts
This judgment concerned a request for mutual legal assistance by the Public Prosecutor's Office II at the Regional Court of Berlin to the Swiss authorities. The Public Prosecutor's Office was investigating several accused persons on suspicion of breach of trust to the detriment of the Treuhandanstalt and the company W. GmbH. The Swiss authorities granted the mutual legal assistance, but imposed a specialty reservation, according to which the information obtained may only be used for the prosecution of the criminal offenses mentioned in the request for legal assistance, but not for the punishment of acts aimed at reducing fiscal charges or violating regulations on currency, trade or economic policy measures.
The affected companies filed complaints against the decisions of the Swiss authorities. They argued that the request for legal assistance was solely for the purpose of obtaining evidence for already pending or planned civil lawsuits, and was therefore abusive.
Considerations
The Federal Court dismissed the complaints. It stated that the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters regulates international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, and it is generally irrelevant whether the criminal proceedings were initiated ex officio or on the complaint of the injured party. An abuse of the mutual legal assistance procedure would only exist if the criminal proceedings were merely a pretext and the requested measures were in reality exclusively intended to provide evidence in a civil lawsuit.
The Federal Court…