Dismissal of a recusal request against a criminal judge and a cantonal court vice-president

Facts

The appellant [A.] was found guilty by the Innerschwyz Public Prosecutor's Office in a penal order of 10 August 2016 of multiple breaches of maintenance obligations within the meaning of Art. 217 SCC. [A.] lodged an appeal on 22 August 2016 and requested the recusal of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Schwyz District Court and, in particular, single judge Beatrice van de Graaf, as well as the Cantonal Court and, in particular, Vice-President Walter Züger, in a submission of 16 December 2016. The appellant requested that the ongoing criminal proceedings be transferred to the Canton of Zurich or another, non-neighboring canton.

The Schwyz Cantonal Court dismissed the recusal request by decision of 7 February 2017. The appellant lodged a criminal appeal with the Federal Court and requested that the contested decision be set aside and the recusal of the Canton of Schwyz's criminal authorities be ordered for the entire criminal proceedings.

Considerations

The Federal Court examined whether the lower court rightly dismissed the recusal request. It found that blanket recusal requests against an authority as a whole are generally inadmissible and that the appellant had not sufficiently substantiated his recusal request in this regard.

The Federal Court found that the Vice-President of the Cantonal Court, Walter Züger, was not biased, as the handling of an appeal against an arrest warrant concerned a different matter and a different…