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Swiss climate activist set to serve time behind bars

Bois-Mermet prison in Lausanne (archive photo 2009) 
Bois-Mermet prison in Lausanne (archive photo 2009) Keystone

Environmental activist Nicolas Presti will serve two months in prison from Tuesday. He chose time behind bars over paying a fine.

Nicolas Presti, co-founder of the Renovate Switzerland movement, will become the first environmental activist to serve a custodial sentence in Switzerland for taking part in non-violent civil disobedience, reports Le Matin Dimanche.

  + Is the climate crisis a threat to human rights?

He was convicted of property damage after filming two other activists pasting the IPCC report on a government building in Lausanne in 2021.

While his comrades lodged an objection and won their case, the 30-year-old has decided to let the legal process run its course.

The man from Vaud refuses to pay the CHF1,800 ($2045)  fine that would save him from prison and wants to make his detention a symbolic act.

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