Federal Court No suspensive effect of the appeal against the Police Act

The appeal lodged by the Democratic Lawyers of Bern against the partially revised Bern Police Act will not be given suspensive effect. This was decided by the Federal Supreme Court. This means that the law, which came into force at the beginning of August, may continue to be applied.

In an interim ruling, the Federal Supreme Court has rejected the request of the Democratic Lawyers to postpone the effect of the law until a legally binding judgment has been issued.

The lawyers, together with left-wing parties and the organizations grundrechte.ch and humanrights.ch, appealed to the Federal Supreme Court and criticized, among other things, the new provisions on automatic vehicle searches.

Interest in criminal prosecution

The Federal Supreme Court only grants suspensive effect in exceptional cases, as it states in its decision. In the present case, the application of the new provisions could lead to a certain degree of legal uncertainty. It could also not be ruled out that in certain cases the interests of individual persons would be adversely affected.

However, the public interest in criminal prosecution prevails and the Federal Supreme Court is adhering to its practice of only granting suspensive effect in exceptional cases where laws have been passed democratically. The Federal Supreme Court still has to decide on the merits of the case. It remains to be seen when the ruling will be handed down. (Decision 1C_354/2024 of 17.9.2024)

SDA