Facts
The case concerns an individual, the applicant, who was detained in a Spanish prison as part of an extradition procedure. The applicant was sentenced to a prison term and requested that the duration of his pre-trial and extradition detention be taken into account in the calculation of his sentence. The lower court rejected this request, considering that only the duration of detention was determinative for the imputation of pre-trial detention.
The parties involved are the applicant and the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Canton of Zurich. The decision was rendered by the Swiss Federal Court on 6 January 2004.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the question of whether the duration of pre-trial and extradition detention should be taken into account in the calculation of the sentence. According to Article 69 of the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC), the judge must take into account the duration of pre-trial detention in the calculation of the sentence, provided that the convicted person did not provoke or prolong the detention by their behavior after committing the offense.
Article 14 of the Federal Act on International Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (IMAC) provides that extradition detention abroad is taken into account in the calculation of the sentence, in accordance with Article 69 SCC. However, this provision does not contain a specific rule for determining how extradition detention should be taken into account.
The Federal Court considered that, in accordance with Article 69 SCC, only the duration of detention is determinative for the imputation of pre-trial detention. The particular deprivations suffered during extradition detention are…