Stiff fine for Geneva airport bomb hoaxer

In all, 145 police officers were called up to respond to the bomb alert Keystone

A French woman who made a false bomb threat at Geneva Airport to stop her husband and his mistress boarding a plane has been slapped with a CHF90,000 fine ($92,250), Geneva police have confirmed.

The 41-year-old mother of four phoned the airport on July 26 with an anonymous security tip. She claimed there was a person with a bomb headed for the French sector of the airport.

In all, 145 armed officers and security forces were called out to patrol the airport and carry out checks, said Geneva police spokesman Jean-Philippe Brandt on Friday, confirming a story in the Le Matin daily.

The tightened security caused major delays and traffic chaos for the 13,000 travellers that day at the airport on the French-Swiss border. The fine corresponds to 880 hours of officers’ time spent during the incident.

Police raided an address after tracing the call. The woman responsible, who lives in Annecy, admitted making a false threat. She told a court that she was out for revenge against another woman who she believed was having an affair with her husband, who she wanted to prevent from leaving Geneva.

Married for 22 years, the woman said she did not think about the consequences when she phoned in the false bomb threat.

An Annecy court has also given her a six-month prison sentence, three months suspended, for the false alert.