Judgment on Endangering Public Safety with Weapons and Receiving Stolen Goods

Facts

[A.] sold a submachine gun to two unknown persons at his place of residence in Rheinfelden between 15 May 2018 and 4 June 2018. Furthermore, he purchased a pistol including a silencer from an unknown Albanian in Basel during the period of December 2015/January 2016. The District Court of Rheinfelden found [A.] guilty, among other things, of multiple counts of endangering public safety with weapons, receiving stolen goods, and multiple violations of the Weapons Act, and sentenced him to a partially suspended custodial sentence of 36 months. The High Court of the Canton of Aargau convicted [A.] of the same facts and sentenced him to a partially suspended custodial sentence of 2 1/4 years and a suspended fine of 150 daily rates of CHF 10.--. It also ordered his expulsion from the country for a period of 7 years.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court quashes the judgment of the High Court of the Canton of Aargau with regard to the conviction for endangering public safety with weapons and remits the case for a new assessment to the lower court. The lower court has not sufficiently clarified the prerequisites for a conviction under Art. 260quater SCC (Endangering Public Safety with Weapons). In particular, there is a lack of a sufficient finding that the buyers of the…