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A case like any other? Not at all: On Tuesday, the Canton of Zurich’s economic crimes prosecutor announced that they were bringing charges against Pierin Vincenz (64), his business partner Beat Stocker (60) and five other people.
They are charged with commercial fraud, embezzlement, document forgery and passive bribery. However, the accusation remains under lock and key. Furthermore, the prosecution has forced all those involved – actors, defendants, witnesses – to keep silent about the information in the investigation files. Anyone who does not comply with this confidentiality order runs the risk of being convicted of “disobedience to official orders”. Specifically: a bus.
And yet the VIEW already knew on Wednesday: Pierin Vincenz was going to jail for six years.
The following day, the finance portal “Inside Paradeplatz” revealed more details: “For Redlight’s amusement, the former CEO made his Raiffeisen pay a quarter of a million, 140,000 for lawyers and CHF 3,788 to repair the Hyatt suite.”
Criminal charges against strangers
On Friday, the Zurich District Court reacted to the indiscretions: “Since the court has evidence that the confidentiality order has been violated, criminal charges will be brought against unknown persons.”
The eagerness of the authorities to keep the accusation to themselves is highly unusual. Even the responsible prosecutor admits to SonntagsBlick that such a secret “is not requested often.” Justify the procedure with the “protection of privacy” of the accused. The district court, in turn, considers that the delivery of the indictment is “unjustifiable” due to the presumption of innocence, which “applies without reservation to all the accused.”
Adrian Ettwein (58), from 2002 to 2015 federal government prosecutor in matters of criminal organizations, securities and economic crimes, suspects a kind of self-protection behind the actions of the authorities: “The more details of the accusation are disseminated and evaluated in the media, the greater the risk of public prejudice, and that can lead to a difficult situation for the court. ”
Biased judges?
Vincenz’s defense attorneys could argue that judges can no longer make an objective decision. “The court would be exposed to the charge of bias.”
The experienced criminal defense lawyer Andreas Josephsohn (58) from Zurich also finds it plausible that secrecy serves to protect the court from suspicions of bias. “In Switzerland it happens much more often than before that the impartiality of a court is called into question due to media coverage.”
However, in his opinion, it does not make much sense to do this beforehand on reservation. “This approach is most promising after the trial has been pronounced, that is, when it comes to moving the case forward.” In certain circumstances, this also saves time and can be an advantage over the statute of limitations for certain offenses.
In other words: the fact that Pierin Vincenz’s alleged sin record is already being reported in detail could ultimately play into the fallen main banker’s cards, at least in court.
