Switzerland: Zurich police to be forced to name nationality and ‘background’ of offenders

Police in Zurich will be forced to release the nationalities and potentially the migration background of offenders, following a Swiss government initiative.

Published: 13 January 2020 17:01 CET

Switzerland: Zurich police to be forced to name nationality and ‘background’ of offenders

Photo: NATHALIE OLOF-ORS / AFP

The initiative was launched by the Swiss government on Monday, which would require Zurich police to name not only the nationality of offenders but also their age and gender.

Similar information must be released concerning victims of crime, provided there is no way that the released information would allow them to be identified.

As reported in Swiss daily 20 Minutes, the government initiative was launched as a counter-proposal to an initiative from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP).

This proposal would have required the police to not only release the above information, but also to make public the ethnicity of perpetrators, i.e. whether or not they had a migrant background.

READ: Have your say: Is it time foreigners in Switzerland had the right to vote?

After the SVP submitted their initiative, the government launched its own – with the one major difference being that the ethnicity/background requirement was removed.

Pursuant to Swiss law, it is now up to the SVP as to whether or not it withdraws its initiative.

If the SVP proposal is withdrawn, the government initiative will stand. If not, the people of Zurich will need to vote on the SVP initiative and the counter-proposal.

READ: Where in Switzerland do all the international residents live?

The initiative was launched in response to a shift in the city’s policy whereby the nationality as well as other personal characteristics of perpetrators of crime would not be named.

The SVP collected just under 10,000 signatures to support its initiative, saying that refusing to release information surrounding a person’s background amounted to “censorship”.

Only 6,000 signatures were required to have the initiative placed before the Zurich parliament, indicating the popularity of the proposal.

Indeed, across Switzerland it is becoming more common for police to provide personal details of criminal perpetrators – particularly with regard to nationality.

As reported in 20 Minutes, the SVP has been pressuring cantons across the country to release identifying information on accused perpetrators wherever possible.

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Member comments

Anonymous - 13 January 2020 at 20:34 CET

Yes they should be named.

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A Swiss appeals court confirmed Monday the acquittal of six police officers over the death of a Nigerian man, in a case that drew comparisons to George Floyd’s killing in the United States.

As with the lower court verdict a year ago acquitting the officers of negligent homicide in the case of Mike Ben Peter, Monday’s ruling sparked immediate protests and chants of “Shame!” outside the courthouse.

Around 80 people crowded outside the court, shouting: “Black lives matter!”, “Justice for Mike”, and “Police kill, the judiciary acquits!”

The 39-year-old Nigerian died following a violent arrest after he refused a police drug search in Lausanne in western Switzerland in early 2018.

In the encounter with the six police officers, he was pinned to the ground on his stomach. He died in hospital a few hours later after suffering a heart attack.

His death initially received little attention, but the global outcry over Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020 placed a bigger spotlight on the Swiss case.

During the first trial in June last year, a court in Lausanne ruled that the six officers involved in the incident could not be found guilty of negligent homicide.

The public prosecutor’s office also decided to drop the charges, referring in particular to forensic analyses that were unable to state with certainty that Ben Peter died due to the police intervention.

After three days of hearings last week at the appeals court in Renens, near Lausanne, the three judges confirmed the lower court ruling, acquitting the officers of negligent homicide.

They also acquitted them on an additional charge of abusing their authority, brought by the lawyer of Ben Peter’s family, Simon Ntah.

As with during the first trial, the judges relied heavily on forensic expert testimony to reach their conclusion.

The experts testified that it was impossible to say for certain that Ben Peter died due to the police intervention.