Facts
The Public Prosecutor's Office in Mannheim is conducting an investigation against a suspect residing in Switzerland on suspicion of tax evasion on import turnover tax. With a request for legal assistance, it asked the Swiss authorities to conduct searches and witness interviews. The Federal Office of Justice transferred the execution of the request for legal assistance to the Federal Customs Administration (Federal Customs Directorate). The latter conducted a house search at the company [X. SA] and sealed documents in the process.
The Federal Customs Directorate requested the Federal Criminal Court to unseal the documents. However, the Federal Criminal Court did not enter into the request, as it denied its jurisdiction. Subsequently, both the Federal Customs Directorate and the Federal Office of Justice filed an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court decided that the Federal Criminal Court is competent to decide on the unsealing. According to Art. 50 para. 3 of the Federal Act on Administrative Criminal Law (ACLA), the Appeals Chamber of the Federal Criminal Court decides on the admissibility of the search of papers. Although Art. 9 sentence 2 of the Federal Act on International Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (IMAC) refers to Articles 246-248 of the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code (CrimPC), this does not lead to a different result here. Since the present legal assistance…