20/12/2022, 3:26 p.m.21/12/2022, 09:38
Criminal charges could be brought against Peter Marti, the special counsel in the leak case in the federal crypto case. The Department of Justice and Police (DFJP) has given the green light to this because it cannot be excluded that the criminal offenses with which Marti is accused are fulfilled.
corrigendum
In a previous version of the article, we mistakenly included an image of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. This has nothing to do with the article and was a mistake. We would like to apologize for that. We are truly sorry for the confusion that has occurred.
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On Tuesday, the general secretary of the DFJP authorized the civil service to carry out criminal proceedings against Marti. The FDJP said the clearance was not an indication of guilt or innocence.
The former headquarters of Crypto AG in Steinhausen. In 2018 the company was renamed CyOne Security AGImage: EPA
In January 2021, Marti was appointed by the supervisory authority of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (AB-BA) as an extraordinary public prosecutor to examine a possible violation of official secrecy in the context of the so-called crypto case.
The crypto business exploded in 2020
Already in September it became known that a criminal complaint had also been filed against Marti. The AB-BA has appointed Stephan Zimmerli Extraordinary Federal Prosecutor to investigate the allegations. He will now also lead the process. The AB-BA did not announce who sent the announcement.
According to the newspapers Tamedia and the “Blick”, the announcement should come from Peter Lauener, the former head of communication for the interior department. According to reports, he is expected to accuse Marti of abuse of power. Lauener was at the center of Marti’s investigation into an information leak in the crypto case.
The crypto affair was exposed in February 2020. At the time, media reported that the US secret service CIA and the German federal intelligence service BND were spying on more than a hundred countries using encryption devices handled by the Zug-based company Crypto AG.
Information from the draft inspection report, classified as confidential, was disclosed to individual media during the administrative consultation. After that, the National Council and Council of States business review commissions filed a criminal complaint.
Former Zurich chief justice Marti was entrusted by the AB-BA, as extraordinary federal prosecutor, with the investigation into whether the secrecy of office had been breached. He opened criminal charges against Lauener and two employees of the Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA). According to “SonntagsBlick”, Lauener had to be temporarily detained.
No comments from Marti
Authorizations to carry out criminal proceedings such as the one in the Marti case must always be granted, as indicated by the FDJP. This is the case even if the probability that a fact has occurred is low.
Authorization can only be refused under certain conditions. These are met if there is clearly no criminal offense, the matter is minor and the person against whom the complaint is directed has already received an appropriate disciplinary sanction.
At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, no comment has been received from Marti.
(saw/nda)
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Criminal charges could be brought against Peter Marti, the special counsel in the leak case in the federal crypto case. The Department of Justice and Police (DFJP) has given the green light to this because it cannot be excluded that the criminal offenses with which Marti is accused are fulfilled.