Dismissal of the appeal for nullity against the referral of the accused to the trial court

Facts

By judgment of 27 August 1997, the Indictment Chamber of the Vaud Cantonal Tribunal dismissed the appeal filed by [P.] against the order of 30 May 1997 by which the investigating magistrate referred [P.] to the District Correctional Tribunal of Nyon as accused of attempted fraud.

[P.] appealed for nullity to the Criminal Cassation Court of the Federal Tribunal, arguing that he did not commit an attempted fraud and, subsidiarily, that only complicity could be held against him. He concluded to the annulment of the challenged decision, the annulment of the first instance decision, the pronouncement of a non-suit, and subsidiarily the referral of the case to the cantonal authority.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal declared the appeal for nullity inadmissible. It considered that the appeal for nullity has only a cassatory character and that the appellant's conclusions seeking anything other than the annulment of the challenged decision and the referral of the case to the cantonal authority for a new decision are inadmissible.

The Federal Tribunal then examined whether the challenged decision constituted a judgment within the meaning of Art. 268 para. 1 CCP, which would have allowed the appeal for nullity. It concluded that the challenged…