Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland

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The Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland (FCC; German: Bundesstrafgericht, French: Tribunal pénal fédéral, Italian: Tribunale penale federale; Romansh: Tribunal federal penala) is the court of first instance in cases subject to federal criminal jurisdiction in Switzerland. It was created in 2002 in the course of a wide-ranging reform of the Swiss federal judiciary. Most of its judgements can be appealed to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.

1 Jurisdiction
2 Organisation
- 2.1 Penal chamber
- 2.2 Appeals chamber
3 Seat
4 References
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Jurisdiction

Federal criminal jurisdiction covers the crimes enumerated in articles 336 and 337 of the Swiss Penal Code. These include crimes against federal interests (against federal institutions, by or against federal officials, etc.) as well as cases of white-collar crime, organised crime and money laundering of an intercantonal or international dimension.

In addition to adjudicating cases in these areas, the FCC has jurisdiction in certain specialised areas of criminal law, including crimes relating to nuclear material or civil aviation. It also reviews actions of the federal criminal prosecution authorities and decides conflicts of competence between the cantonal criminal prosecution authorities.

[edit] Organisation

The FCC consists of an appeals chamber that reviews the actions of subordinate authorities and a penal chamber that conducts trials.

The court's eleven judges are elected by the Swiss Federal Assembly for a term of six years, with reelections being possible. As of 2007, they are:

[edit] Penal chamber

Name	Party^[1]	Notes
Alex Staub	FDP/PRD	President of the Court 2004-5, 2006-7
Bernard Bertossa	SPS/PSS	Chamber vice president
Miriam Forni	SPS/PSS
Sylvia Frei-Hasler	SVP/UDC
Daniel Kipfer Fasciati	GPS/PES
Peter Popp	CVP/PDC	Chamber president
Walter Wüthrich	SPS/PSS

[edit] Appeals chamber

Name	Party^[1]	Notes
Andreas J. Keller	CVP/PDC	Vice President of the Court 2004-5, 2006-7
Emanuel Hochstrasser	SVP/UDC
Barbara Ott	LPS/PLS	Chamber president

[edit] Seat

The court took up its work on 4 April 2004 in Bellinzona. It is the first Swiss federal authority based in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino.

[edit] References

For party affiliations: List provided courtesy of the Secretariat of the Judicial Committee of the Swiss Federal Assembly.

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b The party the judge has indicated an affiliation to when submitting his or her application to the Judicial Committee of the Federal Assembly. This does not necessarily indicate party membership.