Accused refuses to wear a face mask in order to enter courthouse

Two hearings, two guilty verdicts, one kerfuffle: on Tuesday, opponents of the Corona measures kept the Zug criminal court on the go without actually setting foot in the courtroom.

"I have a certificate" .. "This is a private matter" ... "On what legal basis?" ... "I have a certificate" "This is my private business" ... "I have a certificate." Is the record stuck?

The man who uttered the above phrases again and again arrived in front of the Zug Criminal Court on Tuesday morning, shortly after 8.30 a.m., with a cap on his head, a rucksack on his back and an expression of indifference on his face – even though he was involved in a dispute with two people who had been waiting for him for some time, inside the building.

He was, in fact, the accused party in a criminal proceeding of the Zug judiciary – and even though he had been exempted from appearing at the court, he had the opportunity to defend himself before the court today, in order to present his view of things and to explain why he has appealed against the penalty order imposed on him.

Mask? Then the accused preferred to stay outside
But the man in a dark jacket and chunky shoes didn’t want to enter the building if he had to wear a mask. He had an exemption from wearing a mask. Could he prove this? No. His certificate was at home, i.e. in his private area, and was therefore none of the state's business.

"Then we'll postpone the hearing for one hour while you fetch it," said the single judge Thomas Rein, who came outside with the court clerk when it became apparent that the accused would not appear before the Zug Criminal Court at 8.30 a.m. But the accused turned the offer down – and the judge then informed him that he would have to hold the hearing without him. "Are you proud of yourself now?" asked the accused, as the vice president of the criminal court turned away to leave, not judging the question to be worth an answer, and leaving the man standing there defiantly.

CHF 100 fine, CHF 1,000 administration fee
"Alright, I will thereby close the evidentiary procedure due to the lack of a defendant," said Thomas Rein a few minutes later in the courtroom, thereby stopping the hearing. He later announced his verdict after a consultation: the Criminal Court confirmed the penalty order of the Zug Public Prosecutor's Office and thereby the CHF 100 fine, because the accused had made purchases in a gas station shop without wearing a face mask in March 2021.

But it didn’t not stop at the CHF 100. The fee for the court decision alone costs the accused CHF 1,000, not including the costs for the police and the Public Prosecutor's Office – even though the latter had not had to make any significant effort by way of an interrogation.

The accused had already created a similar impasse when he had to appear at the Public Prosecutor's Office for an interview regarding the case. There also, he did not enter the building because he would have had to wear a mask, and the personal interview thereby did not take place. And because he refrained from making a written statement, the court had no usable statement from him, and could therefore only rely on other evidence, such as the charge sheet of the Zug Police.

A further guilty verdict against a 24-year-old from Zurich
Exactly the same thing happened again five and a half hours later. The seat in front of the single judge also remained empty at the second session of the criminal court. The Zug Criminal Court also found the second defendant guilty in absentia of violating the Covid-19 regulation – and also sentenced him to a fine of CHF 100. Here, too, the costs for the procedure are added.

The 24-year-old from Zurich had not worn a mask when he took the S-Bahn from Zurich to Zug on a Saturday evening last March, and then also marched through Zug station, where masks were still mandatory at the time. In contrast to the kerfuffle in the morning, he spared himself a symbolic spectacle and the discussions in the cold regarding the court appearance – and didn’t turn up at all!