Facts
A. drove his passenger vehicle from Lörrach/Germany to the Swiss customs office Grenzacherstrasse in Basel on October 8, 1983 at 03:35 AM. He was detained there on suspicion of intoxication. The blood test showed a blood alcohol content of at least 1.93‰ to a maximum of 2.18‰.
The District Court of Lörrach convicted A. on November 22, 1983 for this drive pursuant to § 316 of the German Criminal Code (Driving Under the Influence) to a fine of 700 DM. Since the intoxicated driving that began in Lörrach was continued on Swiss territory, the Police Court President of Basel-Stadt found A. guilty under Swiss law of driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated and sentenced him, taking into account the penalty already imposed and executed in Germany for the same offense, to a residual custodial sentence of 10 days' imprisonment.
A. filed a nullity appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, requesting that the contested judgment be set aside and the case be remanded to the lower court for acquittal.
Considerations
The Federal Court decided that Switzerland, pursuant to Art. 3 para. 1 of the Swiss Criminal Code, also claims jurisdiction if only part of a single criminal act was committed on Swiss territory and a foreign state also considers itself competent to prosecute the part committed on its territory.
A…