Policing and criminal justice system in Switzerland
Recent stories
Integration report focuses on causes of youth violence
A study, carried out by the Federal Foreigners' Commission as part of its integration programme, concludes that while violent young foreigners are overrepresented in crime statistics the roots of the problem are not ethnic, but do with a young person's social environment.
23 May 2006 (81 words)
Federal Migration Office releases integration report
Unemployment, particularly amongst young foreigners, is highlighted in a Federal Migration Office report which warns that unemployment among foreigners is twice as high as among Swiss nationals and that people of foreign origin are also more likely to live below the poverty line.
2 May 2006 (79 words)
Referendum on asylum and foreigners law
The Coalition for a Humanitarian Switzerland, which comprises leftwing parties, churches and charities has collected more than 16,000 signatures against the new asylum and foreigners law (passed in April 2006), thus forcing a referendum on the issue.
8 April 2006 (179 words)
Swiss People's Party doesn't want to contribute to new eastern states
The general assembly of the Swiss People's Party has proposed collecting signatures for a referendum challenging Switzerland's $770m contribution to the ten new EU member states.
8 April 2006 (110 words)
Concern that Islamophobia will dominate parliamentary elections
The Muslim Association of Switzerland is concerned that mainstream political parties will use Islamophobia as an electoral tool in the 2007 parliamentary elections.
29 March 2006 (125 words)
Swiss People's Party force referendum on naturalisation
The Swiss People's Party has forced a nationwide ballot for its 'people's initiative for "democratic naturalisations"'.
10 January 2006 (109 words)
Blocher forced to defend handling of terror suspect
A 31-year-old suspect Mohamed Achraf had been arrested for theft and immigration violations in Switzerland at the end of August and had been held in a low-security detention centre awaiting deportation.
31 December 2004 (120 words)
Jews furious at extremism slur
The annual report from the domestic intelligence service on the risks of political violence and extremism described some Jewish youth as armed radicals and mentioned the possibility of 'violent extremism' among some Jews and referred to the conduct of associations fighting for the Zionist cause.
31 December 2004 (142 words)
Swiss NGO accuses police of racism
A report by a Swiss anti-racism platform called CRAN, based on eye witness accounts, accuses the police of violence and brutality against black people, especially foreigners.
26 August 2004 (152 words)
Court applies anti-racism laws to neo-Nazi meeting
A ruling by the Federal Court that a neo-Nazi meeting held in September 1999 had contravened anti-racism laws, because it constituted a public meeting, has angered members of the Swiss People's Party who call it an assault on freedom of assembly while others say it will help to muzzle extremists.
19 August 2004 (98 words)
AI criticises police brutality
In its 2004 report AI has condemned the police for using excessive force against foreigners and asylum seekers.
27 May 2004 (108 words)
Khaled Abuzarifa deportation death decision
The federal court has now confirmed that the doctor who was present during the taping of the mouth of Khaled Abuzarifa, prior to a deportation attempt from Zurich on 3 March 1999, in which he died, should serve three months prison on probation.
26 February 2004 (92 words)
ECRI highlights treatment of Africans
ECRI has reported on racism in Switzerland.
27 January 2004 (178 words)
Glarus: Complaint about police raid
AI and the Swiss human rights group, Augenauf, has complained that a police special unit abused its power when it carried out simultanous raids on Rain transit centre for asylum seekers and the accommodation of undocumented workers in the town of Ennenda and two houses for asylum seekers in the town of Linthal, Canton of Glarus.
5 August 2003 (195 words)
Zurich police cleared of brutality
The parliamentary commission, set up in June 2002 to examine alleged Zurich police misconduct in ten separate incidents, has dismissed the notion of a 'Rambo' mentality in the force but was critical of five cases where police used excessive violence on arrest.
11 July 2003 (52 words)
Geneva: Cameroonian woman alleges racial abuse
A Cameroonian woman, detained with her five-week-old baby after a dispute over a bus fare in August 2002, alleged that Geneva police officers subjected her to physical and racial abuse and strip-searched her in the presence of male officers.
1 January 2003 (109 words)
Bern: police officers stand trial for Kurdish refugee death
In October 2002, four Bern police officers were committed for trial in connection with the ill-treatment and death in July 2001 of Cemal Gömeç, a Kurdish refugee.
1 January 2003 (65 words)
Khaled Abuzarifa deportation death update
An appeal court has reduced the sentence on a doctor found guilty of the manslaughter of Khaled Abuzarifa, a Palestinian who died in March 1999, during a forced deportation operation via Zurich-Kloten airport.
16 December 2002 (140 words)
Geneva: two unexplained deaths in custody
In February, in Geneva, over the course of three days, two drugs-users died in the custody of the police in circumstances which have not been properly explained.
1 August 2002 (283 words)
Samson Chukwu deportation death: no police officers prosecuted
In March 2002 the Cantanol Court dismissed an appeal lodged by the family of Samson Chukwu against a decision, by the Valais investigating magistrate in September 2001, that no criminal investigation should be opened against the deportation officers involved.
1 July 2002 (109 words)
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