A summons arrives. “As an accused”, or as a person asked to provide information, or as a private claimant. No one has told you what happens next, in what order, or what you can demand. Swiss criminal procedure nonetheless follows a precise architecture, set out in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrimPC) and governed by a few guiding principles: the principle of investigation, which requires the authorities to gather evidence both for and against the accused (Art. 6 CrimPC), the presumption of innocence and the benefit of the doubt (Art. 10 CrimPC), and the privilege against self-incrimination.
The sequence has three stages: the preliminary proceedings, the first-instance trial, and the appellate remedies.
Preliminary proceedings: police investigation and pre-trial investigation
It all starts with a report. A denunciation (Art. 301 CrimPC), a criminal complaint by the injured party for offenses prosecuted only on complaint (Art. 30 et seq. SCC), or a police report. The police investigation opens (Art. 306 CrimPC): the police establish the facts, secure traces and evidence, identify and question victims and suspects, carry out arrests, then forward their reports to the public prosecutor (Art. 307 CrimPC).
The public prosecutor controls entry into the proceedings. It opens an investigation where there is sufficient suspicion (Art. 309 para. 1 CrimPC). Where the constituent elements of the offense or the conditions for prosecution are manifestly not met, or where there is a procedural bar, it issues a no-proceedings order (Art. 310 para. 1 CrimPC).
The pre-trial investigation (Art. 308 et seq. CrimPC) is the decisive phase. The public prosecutor takes evidence, orders expert opinions and hearings, and builds the file.
Your rights at the first hearing. Before any questioning, the authority must inform you that proceedings have been opened, of the offenses concerned, and of your right to refuse to make a statement (Art. 158 para. 1 CrimPC). Failure to give that information renders the hearing unusable (Art. 158 para. 2 CrimPC). The right to remain silent derives from the principle nemo tenetur, which protects the accused against self-incrimination.
Defense counsel. The accused may instruct counsel of choice at any stage (Art. 129 CrimPC). In certain cases, defense is mandatory (Art. 130 CrimPC): detention exceeding ten days, a custodial sentence of more than one year at stake, among others. It is preferable to consult a lawyer before the first hearing.
Pre-trial detention. It requires that the accused be strongly suspected of a felony or misdemeanor and that there be serious grounds to fear flight, collusion or reoffending, the latter requiring a serious and imminent danger to the safety of others, the Code also covering the risk that a threat will be carried out (Art. 221 CrimPC). The public prosecutor does not order it alone. It applies to the compulsory measures court, which decides (Art. 224 et seq. CrimPC).
How the investigation ends
Once the prosecutor considers the investigation complete, it either issues a summary penalty order or notifies the parties that the investigation is about to close, stating whether it intends to abandon the proceedings or to indict, and sets a time limit for requests for evidence (Art. 318 para. 1 CrimPC). The outcomes are far from equivalent.
Abandonment of proceedings (Art. 319 CrimPC). For want of sufficient grounds, or on a point of law, the public prosecutor closes the file without indictment.
The summary penalty order (Art. 352 CrimPC). The fast track, very common in practice, allows the public prosecutor to convict without trial where the facts are admitted or established and the sanction remains contained (a fine, a monetary penalty of up to 180 daily penalty units, or a custodial sentence of up to six months). Since 1 January 2024, the public prosecutor must hear the accused where the order is likely to result in a custodial sentence to be served (Art. 352a CrimPC). The trap lies in a deadline. Without an objection within ten days (Art. 354 CrimPC), the order becomes final and stands as a conviction. What then remains is restoration of the deadline, where the failure is due to no fault and causes serious and irreparable prejudice (Art. 94 CrimPC), and review, on strict conditions (Art. 410 para. 1 CrimPC). File an objection, even a brief one, and the order, if the prosecutor maintains it, then stands as the indictment before the court (Art. 356 para. 1 CrimPC). An objection is not without risk, since the prohibition of reformatio in pejus does not apply at this stage and a new order or the judgment may turn out harsher (Federal Supreme Court 6B_1079/2015 of 29 February 2016, consid. 5.2). After an objection, the public prosecutor takes the necessary evidence and then maintains the order, issues a new order, abandons the proceedings or brings charges (Art. 355 CrimPC).
The indictment (Art. 324 CrimPC). For more serious facts, the public prosecutor draws up an indictment. That document frames the trial: under the principle of accusation (Art. 9 CrimPC), the court adjudicates only the facts it describes.
The first-instance trial
The trial proper. Appearance, taking of evidence, submissions, closing arguments, the accused’s final word. The court rules on guilt, fixes the sentence where applicable, and decides the civil claims. The judgment is first communicated in its operative part. It is then reasoned in writing, unless the court gave oral reasons and imposed neither a custodial sentence of more than two years, nor indefinite incarceration, nor an in-patient therapeutic measure, in which case written reasons are due only if a party requests them within ten days or files an appeal (Art. 82 CrimPC).
Appellate remedies
An adverse judgment does not exhaust the case. The appeal (Art. 398 et seq. CrimPC) refers the matter to the cantonal court of appeal, which has full power of review over the points challenged (Art. 398 para. 2 CrimPC) and examines the law, the facts and expediency (para. 3), that power narrowing where only contraventions were at issue (para. 4). The deadlines run in two stages: notice within ten days of communication of the judgment, then a written declaration of appeal within twenty days of notification of the reasoned judgment, stating which parts are challenged, the amendments sought and any requests for evidence (Art. 399 paras 1 and 3 CrimPC). Without notice within that time, the appeal is lost.
One safeguard often weighs in the decision to appeal: the prohibition of reformatio in pejus. Where the accused alone appeals, the court may not worsen their position (Art. 391 para. 2 CrimPC), save for new facts unknown to the trial court.
Alongside the appeal, the recours (Art. 393 et seq. CrimPC) targets other decisions and procedural acts. Review (Art. 410 et seq. CrimPC) reopens, on strict conditions, a case finally adjudicated, typically on new facts or evidence. At the end of the chain, the appeal in criminal matters to the Federal Supreme Court (Art. 78 et seq. FSCA) reviews the law, not the facts, save for arbitrariness in their finding.
The practical essentials
Two things weigh on the outcome more than anything else. A lawyer early, before the first hearing if possible, because what is said there shapes the rest. And no deadline left to run, above all the ten days for objecting to a summary penalty order, after which the conviction becomes final.
The strategy as such, the taking of evidence, the discussion with the public prosecutor, is built case by case.
Going further
For the defense itself, at every stage, see our page criminal defense lawyer in Geneva.
Sentinel Legal handles criminal defense and white-collar criminal proceedings in Geneva. To discuss a specific situation: +41 22 512 76 00 or via the contact form.
This article is provided for information only and does not constitute legal advice. Each situation calls for its own analysis. For a specific matter, consult a lawyer.