Facts
The appellant [X.] was acquitted by the Federal Criminal Court of the charge of violation of the War Material Act. However, the Federal Criminal Court imposed procedural costs of 10,000 CHF on him and obliged him to reimburse the compensation for his court-appointed defence counsel to the court's treasury, if he was later able to do so. Furthermore, his claim for compensation for the requested defence was rejected.
[X.] filed a complaint against the decision of the Federal Criminal Court regarding the cost and compensation issues.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the complaint. It set aside the decision of the Federal Criminal Court regarding the imposition of costs, the refusal of compensation for the requested defence, and the obligation to reimburse the compensation for the court-appointed defence counsel, and remanded the case to the lower instance for re-examination in these respects.
The Federal Supreme Court reasoned that the lower instance had implicitly accused the appellant of a violation of the War Material Act in the form of incorrect information in the export application, although he had been acquitted of the main charge. This violated the presumption of innocence under Article 32 paragraph 1 of the Federal Constitution and Article 6 number 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Furthermore, the Federal Supreme Court saw no causal link between the allegedly…