Terror threat rising in Switzerland, says Attorney General

Terror threat also on the rise in Switzerland, according to the Attorney General Keystone-SDA

The number of active terrorism investigations in Switzerland has doubled since 2022, according to the country’s top prosecutor.

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There are 120 cases of suspected terrorism currently being conducted in Switzerland, Attorney General Stefan Blättler said in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung. Most of them have a jihadist background.

This involves terrorist propaganda on the internet, money flowing from Switzerland to terrorist organisations and people travelling to jihad.

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There is a risk that these people will one day plan attacks themselves if they are not stopped in advance. Thanks to interventions, planned attacks have actually been prevented in recent times, Blättler said. “We must expect terrorist activities in Switzerland to increase.”

The impression that Switzerland has so far been spared compared to other countries such as Germany or France is misleading. Even if these were comparatively small cases with isolated individual perpetrators, there were still incidents in Morges, Lugano and Zurich.

Precisely because these were isolated perpetrators, it is all the more difficult to detect them. “The attack in Magdeburg underlines once again that we must be vigilant,” said Blättler.

Investigations fall by the wayside

Other investigations, such as organised crime or cybercrime, have fallen by the wayside due to overwork and a lack of personnel at the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“The federal government has neglected internal security for a long time. We clearly have a shortfall in this area,” said Blättler.

He warned that Switzerland must take active action against gang crime in order to avoid situations like those in Belgium or Sweden involving violence and extortion.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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