Attorney General calls for resources to tackle investigations backlog
Around 500 criminal investigations were pending at the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) of Switzerland at the end of 2023 – the highest number in years.
Attorney General Stefan Blättler said on Thursday he also expects to see an increase in terrorism and cyber crime cases, and is subsequently calling for additional personnel resources.
The OAG opened 21 new terrorism-related cases last year, around 50% more than in 2022, according to a report published on Thursday. A total of 121 criminal proceedings were pending in this division at the end of the year – a record high since 2016. “I cannot predict that this trend will abate,” Blättler told media in Bern.
In addition, the alleged perpetrators are getting younger and younger, and some of them are minors, a development that worried Blättler. “In these cases, juvenile criminal law applies and jurisdiction lies with the cantonal youth prosecution offices, which do not specialise in terrorist offences,” he said.
The question therefore arises of how to deal with young, radical offenders in the future, said Blättler: “It’s about sanctions and security issues.” He has no magic solution, he said, but wanted to raise such questions.
+ Read more: in 2023, the OAG was criticised for years of deficient case handling
‘You can never have enough resources’
According to the report, cyber crime is also presenting the OAG with ever greater challenges. “I expect to see a very sharp increase in cyber cases over the next few years,” said Blättler. Already in 2023, the number of newly opened cyber crime cases doubled compared to the previous year.
Blättler explained that law enforcement was dependent on having enough and good investigators. He pointed out: “You can never have enough resources, for all types of investigations.”
In addition to terror and cyber crime, the fight against the mafia is also at the centre of public interest. At the beginning of 2023, the OAG already established that the Federal Criminal Police no longer had sufficient resources to deal with new proceedings. It therefore called for additional staff for the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).
+ Mafia: Attorney General calls for leniency programme
Minor cases clogging up the system
Regarding the issue of resources, Attorney General Blättler said he was in constant dialogue with Parliament, which he said must examine whether the legal framework for prosecution authorities in Switzerland was sufficient. “I defer to the will of Parliament,” he said; however, it is clear that with too few staff, many cases will remain pending.
Part of the solution could be to withdraw smaller cases from the OAG. “If a bin is blown up in Poschiavo, it’s irritating, but it doesn’t have to be dealt with in Bern,” Blättler said regarding the increasing number of minor offences to be processed. He emphasised that he was not interested in shifting the workload onto the cantons, but that he welcomed discussions about various reforms in criminal law.
In his view, there was also a need for stricter measures against companies which commit white-collar crime, as the fines in corporate criminal law are too low to be a deterrent, especially for multi-billion corporations. He added that the introduction of a leniency programme should also be discussed.
‘Financial police’ increasingly important
Blättler did not want to comment in detail on the package of banking regulation measures adopted by the government on Wednesday. “We have acknowledged it and will take a close look at it,” he said, emphasising “good and close cooperation” with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
Overall, the Attorney General called for the prosecution authorities to be given “modern legal instruments” as criminal proceedings and parameters become ever more complex. This also makes it all the more important for the OAG to utilise its limited resources effectively, he said.
According to Blättler, forensic financial analysis in particular was becoming increasingly important. “It’s almost like a financial police force,” he said, adding it was necessary to pay close attention to this area of the OAG. In this context, Blättler mentioned new instruments for tracking payment transactions and cryptocurrencies.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kp
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