The Franco-Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz will not consult the electronic agenda of the Geneva prosecutor who had launched the procedure for the corruption of foreign public officials. For the Federal Court, entries in this tool can be considered as personal notes which are not subject to the law on transparency.
Recall that Beny Steinmetz was targeted in 2013 by a criminal procedure led by Prosecutor Claudio Mascotto until his departure from the public prosecutor in 2019. The Mines magnate has always proclaimed his innocence and denounced a bias of the magistrate, accusing the latter of having set up a dependent file by meeting witnesses and police, in particular in Israel, while ignoring procedural rules. The challenge of the prosecutor was rejected and these reproaches also made White Chou during the judgment of the case.
Independence of magistrates
In a judgment published on Monday, the Federal Court reserves the same fate at the request to consult the Outlook electronic agenda from Claudio Mascotto. Like the Geneva justice which had considered that this calendar was an aid-memory for the exclusive use of the magistrate, the 1st Court of Public Law considers that it is not arbitrary to consider that the former prosecutor (now judge in the administrative chamber) only used this tool for personal organizational purposes, for the management of his meetings and audiences.
During the procedure against Beny Steinmetz, the prosecutor did not ensure any hierarchical function within the prosecution, noted the judges of my rest. The progress of his days and the management of his meetings had no influence on the activity of other members of the jurisdiction. “The independence from which a magistrate must benefit implies that his schedule is not subject to a hierarchical or popular control, at the risk of seeing his activity influenced by elements foreign to the procedure”, specifies the Federal Court.
Condemned for corruption of foreign public officials during the allocation of mining concessions in the Republic of Guinea, the billionaire received 3 years in prison, half of which was suspended. His business manager for Africa was sentenced to 2 years suspended sentence and a close collaborator at 15 months, also suspended. These decisions were essentially confirmed by the Federal Court this spring. Only the question of the compensatory claim will return to the cantonal court for new motivation.
Stop 1C_724/2024 of June 25, 2025.