Facts
The appellant [X.] was found guilty of murder of a border guard by the Jury Court of the Canton of Zurich on 4 June 2004 and sentenced to 17 years of penitentiary. This sentence was imposed as an additional penalty to the judgment of the Tribunale di Massa Carrara/I of 2 April 1993 and the Corte di Appello di Genova/I of 26 November 1993, in which the appellant had been sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for explosives offences as well as completed and attempted bodily harm. The appellant filed a federal nullity appeal against the judgment of the Jury Court, in particular challenging the assessment of the additional penalty. The Federal Supreme Court upheld the appeal and quashed the judgment.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court held that an increase in sentence to life imprisonment under Art. 68 para. 1 SCC is only possible if the offender has committed multiple offences punishable by this maximum sentence. However, since only one offence punishable by life imprisonment, namely murder, was imputed to the appellant, for which the lower court itself considered a fixed-term sentence appropriate, an increase in sentence to life imprisonment violates the principle of aspiration under Art. 68 para. 1 SCC. Furthermore, the lower court violated federal law by imposing the same duration of 17 years' penitentiary as the additional penalty as it had considered appropriate for the murder alone. This is contrary to the principle of aspiration, according to which the additional…