Facts
The complainant, lawyer [X.] , filed a criminal complaint against lawyer [Y.] for various offences, including breach of professional secrecy and defamation. The Public Prosecutor's Office I of the Canton of Zurich decided not to initiate the criminal investigation. The High Court of the Canton of Zurich dismissed the complainant's appeal against this decision. The complainant requested the Federal Court to set aside the decision of the High Court and the decision of the Public Prosecutor's Office not to initiate proceedings, and to institute criminal proceedings against the respondent. The Federal Court only addressed the allegation that the High Court had violated Art. 310 CrimPC in conjunction with Art. 173 et seq. SCC by declaring the non-initiation of criminal proceedings for defamation to be lawful.Considerations
The Federal Court held that defamatory statements by parties and their lawyers in the proceedings are justified due to the rights and obligations of presentation and the professional duty under Art. 14 SCC, provided that they are factual, do not go beyond what is necessary, are not made in bad faith, and merely state assumptions as such. In the present case, the respondent had set out in his legal brief of 18 July 2011 why he had reservations about…