Facts
The appellant [A.] was partially acquitted and partially convicted by the District Court of Zurich on July 4, 2018, of the charges of simple bodily harm, property damage, and theft. He appealed this judgment and requested an acquittal of the charge of simple bodily harm and no punishment, also not for the charge of property damage. The High Court of the Canton of Zurich dismissed the appeal and confirmed the judgment of the District Court.
The appellant filed a complaint with the Federal Court and alleged a violation of Art. 329 para. 1 lit. b and Art. 403 para. 1 lit. c CrimPC. He argued that the High Court had wrongly assumed that his request for discontinuation of the proceedings in dossier 3 (property damage) was new, as he had not made it in the appeal statement.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the appellant's complaint and came to the conclusion that the lower court had violated federal law by assuming a limitation of the appeal to certain parts of the judgment. The appellant's appeal statement was to be understood as a comprehensive challenge to the judgment, and the lower court should have dealt with all the contested points.
The Federal Court also rejected the complaint of arbitrary evaluation of evidence and violation of the presumption of innocence. The lower court had justified its evaluation of evidence in a comprehensible manner and…