Facts
The Federal Tribunal dismissed the appeal for nullity by S. against the judgment of the Civil and Criminal Revision Chamber of the Vaud Cantonal Tribunal, which had rejected his request for revision of the default judgment rendered on May 20, 1986 by the District Correctional Tribunal of Lausanne.
S. had been convicted by default for continued fraud, attempted fraud, receiving stolen goods, forgery of securities, and a serious violation of the Narcotics Act, to a sentence of four and a half years of confinement and expulsion from Swiss territory for a period of fifteen years. Having subsequently learned that another person involved in the same case, W., had obtained relief from the default judgment rendered against him and had been convicted contradictorily to a sentence of five years of confinement, with a different legal qualification, S. requested the revision of his judgment.
Considerations
According to the case law of the Federal Tribunal, the conditions for revision provided for in Art. 397 of the Criminal Code are met when new facts or evidence, i.e., unknown to the judge at the time of the first judgment, are invoked and are serious, i.e., capable of shaking the factual findings on which the conviction is based and making possible a significantly more favorable judgment for the convicted person.
In the present case, the Federal Tribunal considered that the elements invoked by…