Questione giuridica chiave
Whether the replacement of one district judge before the second hearing violated the immediacy principle under § 27 StPO/AG.
Decisione estratta
No. The immediacy principle is limited by cantonal procedure; a judge may join after reading the record and hearing the defendant anew when there is a factual reason, such as the prior judge leaving office.
Motivazione estratta
The court held that neither the Federal Constitution nor the ECHR guarantee an unrestricted immediacy principle. The record-based procedure under § 28 Abs. 1 StPO/AG and the legitimate reason for the panel change made it non-arbitrary to continue without repeating the whole first hearing.