Facts
The case concerns W., a man born in 1954 in Kinshasa (Zaire), who left his country in 1980 to settle in France, where he obtained political asylum. Between January 1991 and his arrest in September 1991, he delivered 3.1 kg of hard drugs in Switzerland, acquired on the Amsterdam market and sometimes transported by himself, but most often by third parties. The profit made was estimated at around 186,000 fr.
The Criminal Court of the Lausanne district sentenced W. to 13 years' imprisonment and expulsion from Swiss territory for a period of 15 years, charging him with a compensatory claim of 50,000 fr. and part of the procedural costs. The Penal Court of Appeal of the Vaud Cantonal Court confirmed the judgment under appeal, and W. appealed to the Penal Court of Appeal of the Federal Court.
Considerations
The Penal Court of Appeal of the Federal Court examined the admissibility of the appeal and considered that the sentence imposed on W. was not excessively severe. The Court recalled that the determination of the sentence must be based on the fault attributable to the author and not on the danger posed by the drug on which the trafficking took place.
The Court also considered that the quantity of drugs at stake and, if applicable, their purity, lose importance when several aggravating circumstances provided for in art. 19 para. 2 NarcA are realized. In this case, it was admitted that W. had fulfilled the three hypotheses of…