Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
a few weeks ago, a decision by the Swiss Federal Court in a rape case caused quite a stir in Switzerland. Indeed, the country's highest court had justified its decision on the basis of the duration of the sexual assault.
The judges have obviously changed their minds, since they now admit that the expression “short-duration rape” is nonsense.
I also tell you about a young Swiss man who allegedly called in bomb threats in Austria, about the employee of a Swiss NGO sentenced to prison in Russia, and about the leniency of Swiss regulations towards hit-and-run drivers.
The duration of a rape cannot be taken into account in when weighing the seriousness of the crime. This is the decision handed down on Tuesday by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in a case from Valais.
In 2023, a 51-year-old man sexually assaulted a woman on her way home. They had met earlier in a bar.
Sentenced to 42 months’ imprisonment and a ten-year ban on entering Switzerland, the foreign national appealed to the Federal Court. His defence was that the Valais cantonal court should have handed down a more lenient sentence, given the short duration of the rape.
He relied on a case from the canton of Basel-City, in which the Federal Court had referred to the duration of the assault as one of the reasons for its decision.
The Federal Court rejected the defendant’s appeal, describing its own formulation at the time as “isolated and inappropriate”. Switzerland’s highest court noted that the expression “rape of short duration” was nonsense.
On the contrary, a crime of longer duration can have an aggravating effect on the perpetrator’s guilt if leads to the conclusion of increased criminal intent, the court said.
The article on SRFExternal link
Austrian police have identified a young Swiss man as the perpetrator of a series of bomb threats. A European arrest warrant has been issued for him.
Since September 30, the Austrian authorities had been investigating a series of 27 bomb threats, all received by e-mail, targeting railway stations, schools and shopping centres.
The main suspect is a 20-year-old Swiss national from the canton of St Gallen. However, despite the European arrest warrant immediately forwarded to the Swiss authorities, the Austrian press has doubts about the young man’s extradition.
It is claimed that he suffers from mental problems. One of the threats was even made from a computer in a psychiatric clinic. The motive and reason for his choice of targets remain unclear for the time being.
Austrian Railways (ÖBB) reported that the initial bomb threats disrupted around 450 trains and thousands of passengers, bringing rail traffic to a halt for around eight hours.
Details from BlickExternal link (in French) and the NZZExternal link (in German)
Frenchman Laurent Vinatier, an employee of a Swiss NGO in Russia, has been sentenced to three years in prison. His lawyers have announced their intention to appeal.
Vinatier had been detained since June. His crime? Not registering as a ‘foreign agent’ – a label used in Russia against critical voices and which imposes heavy administrative obligations, on pain of criminal sanctions. The Russian security services (FSB) accused him of having collected ‘information in the field of military activities’ that could be ‘used against the security’ of Russia.
A specialist in post-Soviet Russia, Vinatier was employed by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss NGO that mediates in conflicts outside official diplomatic channels. He had been working for years on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
France deplored Vinatier’s conviction on Monday evening, describing the sentence as ‘extremely severe’. The case comes at a time when relations between Moscow and Paris are particularly tense. Russia has been accused of a series of acts of destabilisation and disinformation on French territory, while France has been criticised for its support for Ukraine.
The facts from RTSExternal link
A hit-and-run driver caught driving at almost twice the speed limit is given a fine rather than a suspended prison sentence. The Roadcross road safety organisation is outraged.
A driver from Ticino was travelling at 188 km/h on the motorway, instead of staying within the speed limit of 100 km/h. Sentenced at first instance to a 12-month suspended prison sentence, the Ticino Court of Appeal converted it into a suspended day fine of 180 days.
In a ruling published on Monday, the Federal Court confirmed this decision. It is in line with the new regulations that came into force in October 2023. Under the new rules, first-time offenders can be punished with a fine instead of a minimum of one year’s imprisonment for speeding offences.
However, this would be subject to the offender not having been convicted in the last ten years of a road traffic crime or offence posing a serious threat to the safety of others or resulting in the injury or death of others.
For Willi Wismer, president of the Roadcross road safety association, the leniency shown to hit-and-run drivers is an “affront to the victims”. He intends to analyse future judgements and does not rule out launching a popular initiative against hit-and-run drivers or other parliamentary initiatives.
The Tages-AnzeigerExternal link article
Blick interview with RoadcrossExternal link
Switzerland came second in the World Wine Tasting Championships. The 12th edition took place on Saturday in France, in a Bordeaux vineyard.
Italy topped the podium, followed by Switzerland and Taiwan. A total of 39 countries were competing for the title of the best blind tasting team.
The Swiss delegation was made up entirely of Vaud natives – one woman and three men. The team had qualified last June by winning the Swiss championship.
During the competition, the participants had to taste 12 wines from all over the world. The challenge was to identify the grape variety (10 points), the country (five points), the region (five points) and the vintage (three points). “There were three wines where we identified everything and three where we found nothing,’ said Christian Gfeller, one of the members of the Swiss team.
The RTS External linkarticle
Picture of the day
The railway bridge spanning the Rhône between Sierre and Chippis was dismantled on the morning of Monday, October 14. The bridge was also the cause of the logjam that occurred when the river rose this summer and caused the flooding that followed.
The two owners of the railway bridge, AluInfra Services SA and Constellium Valais SA, have delegated the management of the project to the canton of Valais.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ac
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