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A new anti-terror law that gives police more powers to fight terrorism but which has been criticised by the UN and human rights groups, could be signed off on by Swiss voters on Sunday, as explained by criminology scientist Ahmed Ajil in Bern on Saturday.
Ajil, a scientist at the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Lausanne, explains that the law will allow Swiss federal police to enforce contact bans, the confiscation of documents, and even place people under lengthy house arrest from the age of 12, in an effort to fight terrorism.
The measures, said Ajil, can be ordered from 9 to 12 months and work ‘completely outside of the criminal law.’
“Because of this vague definition of this law, it can be said that this law could be implicated on everybody and restrict the basic rights of people who did not do anything criminal,” Ajil continued.
“Because the law is laid out so neutrally it can be implicated on different areas as well, and therefore it can be said today already that it will affect right wing extremism and left wing extremism as well.”
Switzerland initially adopted the law in 2020, following a series of attacks in Europe since 2015, with the aim to make it easier for police to monitor, as well as restrict, the movement of terrorism suspects.
The law was put to referendum on June 13 by those who opposed it, however, recent polls are suggesting that two thirds of voters intend to back the law.
Several human rights organisations, including the UN and Amnesty International, have criticised the law, which is one of the strictest anti-terrorism laws in Europe.
SOT, Ahmed Ajil, Scientist in criminology at School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne (German): ”This law is about police prevention measurements to fight terrorism, that’s how it is called. Those are measurement which go from contact prohibiting, confiscation of documents and passport, to, and this is the most restrictive and the most controversial, house arrests. Those measurements can be ordered from 9 to 12 months and what is special about those measurements is that they are completely outside of the criminal law.”
SOT, Ahmed Ajil, Scientist in criminology at School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne (German): “Those are people who are classified as potential terrorist offenders through FEDPOL, which is the federal police in Switzerland. On account of this classification of potentially dangerous, that they could be involved in some kind of terrorist involvement, those measurements can be implicated on them.”
SOT, Ahmed Ajil, Scientist in criminology at School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne (German): “And because of this vague definition of this law, it can be said that this law could be implicated on everybody and restrict the basic rights of people who did not do anything criminal.”
SOT, Ahmed Ajil, Scientist in criminology at School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne (German): “If you look at the cases which have been dealt with at the federal court in Bellinzona between 2004 and 2020, then you can see that the majority of those crimes are on the internet. We almost don’t speak about violent crimes, which would affect people on the street.”
SOT, Ahmed Ajil, Scientist in criminology at School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne (German): “Our criminal law is very preventative as it intervenes very early already and we already have different measurements outside the criminal law , as in the administrative law, so Fedpol is able to deport people, is able to refuse entry, they are able to implicate contact prohibitions within the immigration law, there are very different measurements.”
SOT, Ahmed Ajil, Scientist in criminology at School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne (German): “But because the law is laid out so neutrally it can be implicated on different areas as well, and therefore it can be said today already that it will affect right wing extremism and left wing extremism as well.”
SOT, Ahmed Ajil, Scientist in criminology at School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne (German): “But what is for sure is that we will, in this fanatic hunt for an illusionary zero-risk, put up with freedom restrictions; that we will put up with several restrictions of our basic laws, and carve on the foundation of our state of law, and effectively this is the risk which we are heading to.”
#Switzerland #UN #law
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