Facts
The case concerns the conviction of V. for gang-related violations of the Narcotics Act. V. was found guilty by the District Court of Laufenburg of having sold a total of approximately 240 grams of hashish to various buyers in Zurich, Olten and Lenzburg between March and July 1996. From June 1996 onwards, L. had assisted him by weighing, portioning and packaging the hashish, arranging hashish deals and transporting hashish and drug money. On the night of July 18/19, 1996, V. and L. had gone to Zurich to purchase between 3 and 3.5 kg of hashish for resale.
The District Court of Laufenburg convicted V. of multiple violations of the Narcotics Act as well as various other offenses and imposed a penitentiary sentence of 2 years and 6 months as well as a fine. The High Court of the Canton of Aargau dismissed the convicted person's appeal.
V. then filed a constitutional appeal, requesting that the judgment of the High Court be overturned insofar as it violated the principle "in dubio pro reo".
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the appeal. It stated that the affirmation of the intent to commit the offense as part of a criminal organization, despite significant countervailing evidence, based solely on the fact that two perpetrators committed several offenses together, was arbitrary and violated the principle "in dubio pro reo".
While according to the case law of the Federal Supreme Court, two persons are sufficient to form a criminal organization. However, the decisive factor is less the number of members than the degree of organization…