Climate protestors take their case to court

More than 100 climate protesters demonstrated against allegedly damaging projects and investments by the two leading Swiss banks earlier this month. Keystone/Georgios Kefalas

Several environmental activists say they will challenge in court their summary punishments for blocking access to Swiss banks last week.

The Collective Climate Justice group in the cities of Zurich and Basel on Friday said they did not accept the fines handed down for trespassing, causing damage to private property and obstructing police.

The groupExternal link has also complained about the conditions in detention centres where some of them were held for questioning.

More than 80 activists were arrested in Zurich and Basel after they blocked the entrance to buildings of the Credit Suisse and UBS banks to protest against investments and projects considered damaging to the climate and the environment.

One person is still in detention in Zurich more than ten days after the protest, according to the Swiss news agency, Keystone-SDA. It is not clear when he will be released.

Switzerland has seen a string of demonstrations this year calling on the government to speed up reforms that would reduce harmful emissions.