Federal Court acquits former Appenzell public prosecutor
Published: Friday, Nov 17th 2023, 15:00
Updated At: Friday, Nov 17th 2023, 15:03
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The Federal Supreme Court has acquitted a former public prosecutor of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden of favoritism. He was accused of delaying the investigation into a fatal accident at a training company in 2010. The case was time-barred.
Former Innerrhoden public prosecutor Herbert Brogli has been acquitted in an appeal before the Federal Supreme Court. The federal judges thus overturned the ruling of the Innerrhoden cantonal court from June 2021. The court sentenced Brogli to a conditional prison sentence of six months.
The conviction for multiple counts of favoritism is contrary to federal law, according to the Federal Supreme Court's ruling, which was published on Friday. The conduct of the public prosecutor was indicative of "conscious negligence". However, the judges denied an intention to avoid prosecution of the persons accused of the apprentice's fatal accident.
Fatal accident at work involving an apprentice
In September 2010, an apprentice was trapped in a goods lift at his training company in Appenzell and fatally injured. The lift was inadequately secured against accidents, which had already been criticized by the labour inspectorate years earlier. A criminal investigation was launched.
The public prosecutor took over six and a half years to do so, explaining this with work overload. The charge of involuntary manslaughter against the plant manager, the instructor and the manufacturer of the goods lift ultimately came too late. The district court of Appenzell dropped the case in the fall of 2017 due to the statute of limitations. The accused public prosecutor was released.
An extraordinary public prosecutor brought charges against Brogli. At the hearing before the Cantonal Court of Appenzell Innerrhoden at the time, he explained that he had accepted the statute of limitations and thus favored the garage owner, the master and the lift manufacturer. The accused had been repeatedly informed of the slow progress of the proceedings and the impending statute of limitations.
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