Other cases must wait: Vincenz case allows Pendenzenberg to grow as a prosecutor

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“True crime – every day.” The Zurich prosecutor’s office advertises personnel in a brochure. They can urgently use good personnel: more than 11,000 cases are currently pending in the Zurich prosecutor’s office, and this trend is increasing. The latest figures will be published in April, and the prosecutor’s office issued the following statement at Blick’s request: “There are signs of a further increase in pending cases.”

The case involving former Raiffeisen boss Pierin Vincenz, 67, is also partly to blame. It is handled by the specialized Zurich Public Prosecutor’s Office III, which deals only with complex economic crimes. “The Vincenz case pushed the prosecutor’s office to its limits for years,” predicts law professor Peter V. Kunz, 59. III. Pendenzenberg at the Public Prosecutor’s Office recently increased by 20 percent; In the Zurich prosecutor’s office as a whole, the increase was 6.5 percent in the same period.

Huge pressure to succeed in Vincenz case

The indictment written by the prosecutor in the Vincenz case alone was 364 pages long. The Zurich District Court had ruled against Vincenz and the other defendants nearly two years ago; however, this decision was overturned by the Zurich Supreme Court a few weeks ago. Reason: procedural error. Among other things, the indictment was “partially excessive” rather than focusing on the merits.

“The extent of the process has gotten out of control,” was Kunz’s verdict. The protocols fill several hundred federal folders. “The prosecution probably wanted to do too well and overstepped the mark.” Media interest in the case was and still is enormous, and the prosecutor’s image was at stake. With the recent developments in the Vincenz case, it has received a lot of criticism.

The ball is now in the Federal Court’s court in the Vincenz case: The Zurich prosecutor’s office moved forward with the decision of the high court to overturn the decision. Kunz expects a decision at the beginning of the year on whether it is legal for the high court to annul the decision. “Then the prosecutor’s office starts over from area 1,” Kunz said. It is not possible to shorten the indictment, it needs to be completely rewritten. The Vincenz case will likely strain the Zurich prosecutor’s office for years to come and delay other cases.

Zurich: scene of white-collar crime nationwide

The extreme intensity of the Zurich prosecutor’s office is not just about Vincenz. This is a nationwide phenomenon. More than 100,000 criminal cases are pending across the country. The growing workload in the prosecutor’s office is due to changes in the criminal procedure law that increase the formal requirements for investigations. New types of crimes (including cybercrime) also make criminal proceedings increasingly complex. And decisions are now more often sent to the next higher authority, prolonging the trial.

Zurich is disproportionately affected by this phenomenon because almost all of the complex white-collar crime cases in Switzerland are located in Zurich. Fraud, money laundering and large-scale corruption do not take place in Glarnerland, but where the levers of the national and international financial industry are located. Just true crime.

Source :Blick