Swiss intelligence says 100 people pose ‘high risk’ to security

New suspects were jihadists who had been radicalised within Switzerland Keystone

Around 100 people in Switzerland have been identified as a high risk for national security, including jihadists and other extremists, according to the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS). 

The number of “people at risk”, representing a high security threat, has risen by 10 to 100 since the last figures were presented by the FIS in May. Those identified as posing a high security risk to Switzerland include not just potential jihadists but also those who support or encourage terrorism and any kind of violent extremism. 

The new suspects were jihadists who had been radicalised within Switzerland but had not yet travelled to a conflict zone. All of them had links to the Islamic State, the FIS said in a statement External linkon Thursday. 

The intelligence service also announced that it had registered a total of 93 so-called jihadi travelers from Switzerland to conflict zones since 2001 (mainly Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen). This figure had risen from 89 in August. The four new cases were not new departures but people who had been in conflict zones for several years but had only recently been detected there by the FIS. No new jihadi travellers have been identified since 2016. 

Overall, 550 “virtual jihadists” active on the internet are being monitored by the FIS, compared to 497 a year ago. These are people who spread material in Switzerland or abroad on jihadist activities or are linked to people who support such ideologies.