Guilty verdict against right-wing politician confirmed
A right-wing Swiss politician has been found guilty of racial discrimination for comments made on social media.
The highest court on Wednesday confirmed a previous verdict delivered by lower courts against Jean-Luc Addor, parliamentarian from canton Valais for the Swiss People’s Party, three years’ ago.
He was given a suspended fine of CHF18,000 ($19,600) for his remarks that contravened the Swiss racial discrimination law.
The Federal Court said the comments of the defendant on Twitter and Facebook could be read as a call for more violence.
Minutes after a man was shot to death inside a mosque in the eastern town of St Gallen in 2014, Addor wrote “On en redemande!” (“Let’s have more!”) on his social media accounts.
Addor, a former court clerk and judge, had claimed that his comments were a form of irony.
He has a reputation for provocative and ambiguous public statements.
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