Admissibility of conditional motions for the recusal of expert witnesses in criminal proceedings

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) 1st Criminal Senate dismissed the defendant's appeal as unfounded, ordering the defendant to bear the costs of the legal remedy and the necessary expenses incurred by the auxiliary plaintiff, thereby upholding the underlying judgment of the Regional Court of Munich II. The dispute involved a criminal revision challenging a lower court decision, specifically addressing the procedural admissibility of a motion for the recusal of an expert witness due to suspicion of bias. The decisive legal basis was § 349(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO), which found no legal error to the defendant's detriment, alongside the doctrinal principle that a motion for the recusal of an expert witness on grounds of bias is fundamentally incompatible with conditions (bedingungsfeindlich).