Facts
The complainant [X.] was subject to a criminal investigation by the Zurich law enforcement authorities on suspicion of investment fraud, money laundering, and other offenses in the millions, and was issued a coercive measures order by the District Attorney's Office III for the Canton of Zurich. The order included, among other things, the freezing of an account with a credit card company and the seizure of the account balance. The Federal Prosecutor's Office took over the criminal investigation and confirmed the coercive measures order in Italian. The complainant appealed against the decision of the Appeals Chamber of the Federal Criminal Court, which dismissed his appeal.
The complainant argued that the Federal Prosecutor's Office was not competent to assess the seizure and that the Lugano division was not competent. He also requested that the Federal Prosecutor's Office draft its order in German and conduct the further proceedings in German.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the admissibility of the appeal and concluded that the appeal is partially admissible insofar as it relates to the violation of federal law. The court found that the Federal Prosecutor's Office has broad discretion in choosing the language of the proceedings, but that this does not mean that it can choose the language arbitrarily.
The court found that the Federal Prosecutor's Office did not violate federal law in the present case by choosing Italian as the language of the proceedings. However, it also found…