(Swiss Info) Switzerland is moving towards a ban on Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip and carried out a major attack against Israel on Oct. 7. On Tuesday, the Senate tacitly adopted a committee motion calling for the Islamist […]
(Swiss Info) Switzerland is drawing up legislation to ban the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation. A law will be proposed to parliament aimed at providing the necessary legal tools to counter any Hamas activities or support for […]
(Swiss Info) The Security Policy Commission of the Senate (SIK-S) is also reacting to the attack on Israel and wants to ban the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas. It has submitted a corresponding motion. The decision was made by 8 votes to 0, […]
(Swiss Info) The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has opened an investigation into suspected Swiss financing of Palestinian militant group Hamas. “The criminal investigation was opened a few weeks ago, shortly before the Hamas attack in Israel,” Attorney General Stefan Blättler […]
(Swiss Info) It will be illegal to conceal one’s face in public in Switzerland. Parliament has accepted the government’s bill implementing the so-called anti-burka initiative at [the] federal level, including a fine of up to CHF1,000 ($1,115) for those who flout the […]
(Swiss Info) Canton St Gallen’s burqa ban has never been implemented since it was introduced five years ago. The public prosecutor’s office has not yet received any complaint, [it] told the Keystone-SDA news agency. In the last five years, no one has […]
(Swiss Info) Winterthur district court has sentenced a 50-year-old Algerian man for attacking two worshippers in the An’Nur mosque. The man received a suspended prison sentence of 12 months and a seven-year ban from Switzerland. The man, who was involved in an […]
(Swiss Info) Authorities in cantons Vaud and Neuchâtel have arrested four individuals suspected of carrying out various support activities for a terrorist group. Four Syrian nationals were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of supporting the Al-Nusra Front terrorism group. Two of the […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan will stand trial at a Paris criminal court for rapes alleged to have taken place between 2009 and 2016, two judges decided on Friday. The judges, however, partially dismissed allegations made by two of the […]
(Swiss Info) The Office of the Attorney General of Geneva has confirmed its appeal against a local court’s decision to clear Tariq Ramadan last month. The renowned Islamic studies scholar had been accused of “rape and sexual coercion” by a Swiss woman. […]
(Swiss Info) With a “Salam aleikum,” teacher Nimetullah Veseli greets the pupils of year four in the Kirchacker school building. Veseli stands in front of the six boys and six girls in the classroom in Neuhausen, Schaffhausen. Wearing jeans and a white […]
(Swiss Info) A 25-year-old man, already convicted in Switzerland for supporting banned Islamic terrorist groups, is now accused of being a recruiter, propagandist and fundraiser for Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The Office for the Attorney General (OAG) announced further charges on Monday […]
(Swiss Info) A concert in Geneva by French rapper Lomepal was cancelled on … the weekend because of an online terror threat. A 40-year-old man was arrested but later released. The man was arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences following the evacuation […]
(Swiss Info) Geneva’s city council has amended its regulations for public sports facilities to allow people to wear burkinis in the city’s swimming pools. The change had been pushed by the political left. In the end, 38 votes were in favour of […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss Centre for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg completed its first further education course for imams in autumn. Hansjörg Schmid, director of the centre, takes stock of the experience. The 12-month course attracted a great deal […]
(Swiss Info) Mustafa Memeti, the imam of the Muslim Association of Bern and responsible for the mosque in the Swiss capital’s House of Religions, has announced he will stand down at the end of April. Memeti, 62, said in a statement on […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss justice authorities say they have indicted a Turkish national for supporting terrorist groups and depicting prohibited violence. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) accuses the 26-year-old defendant of encouraging a teenager in his support for the ideology of […]
(Swiss Info) Three Swiss terror suspects who went missing in north-eastern Syria in January are being held in detention camps run by Kurdish authorities, the Swiss foreign ministry has confirmed. The three men, reportedly from Geneva, Lausanne and Orbe, went missing following a rescue […]
(Swiss Info) Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan will have to stand trial in the Swiss city of Geneva next year accused of rape and sexual coercion. Justice officials and lawyers of the parties confirmed that the 60-year-old will be tried following four years […]
(Swiss Info) A Swiss mosque, housed in a religious centre that receives state grants, has been accused of playing a role in forcing women into marriages against their will. Swiss public broadcaster SRF uncovered evidence of forced marriages at a mosque in […]
(Swiss Info) The government says it has no plans to ban the Islamist militant Hezbollah group in Switzerland as it posed no major terrorist threat. The Lebanon-based group is not very active in Switzerland and no fundraising or other financial activities are […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss government wants fines of up to CHF1,000 ($1,000) for people who break a ban on face coverings in public places. This is part of a bill sent to parliament on Wednesday to implement the so-called “burqa ban” proposed […]
(Swiss Info) Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court has ruled that an Iraqi convicted only of association with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State groups will not be imprisoned. The decision came in response to an appeal by the attorney general. In July 2021, the […]
(Swiss Info) A court in the Swiss town of Biel/Bienne on Tuesday convicted Muslim preacher Abu Ramadan of welfare fraud and inciting racial hatred. Ramadan, a Libyan national, was given a 14-month suspended jail sentence and is to be expelled from Switzerland […]
(Swiss Info) The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has filed an indictment against a Swiss-Turkish man who fatally stabbed a man in the Swiss town of Morges in 2020 in a “jihadist-motivated” attack. The 28-year-old Swiss-Turkish dual national, who […]
(Swiss Info) The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has filed an indictment against a Swiss woman who attacked two people with a knife in a department store in the Swiss city of Lugano in 2020. The 29-year-old, who lives […]
(Swiss Info) Claims that international Islamist movements exert significant influence over mosques and Muslim communities in Switzerland are exaggerated, a study has found. While international networks and money from places like Saudi Arabia or Qatar help in the setting up of structures […]
(Swiss Info) A district court in Switzerland has acquitted four defendants accused of inciting violence against the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The judge ruled that a controversial banner shown by protesters at a 2017 demonstration in the Swiss capital, Bern, had […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss foreign ministry says it has “no definite information” on the whereabouts of two terror suspects who had been detained in northern Syria. The two jihadists — originally from Geneva and Lausanne — have been missing since a rescue […]
(Swiss Info) Federal prosecutors have now cleared both Swiss nationals suspected of supporting the November 2020 terror attack which killed four people in Vienna. The pair were arrested in November 2020 on suspicion of having made a “causal contribution to support or […]
(Swiss Info) Switzerland and Austria want to strengthen cooperation on migration and security, they said on Tuesday. This came at a meeting in Vienna between Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter and her new Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner. Their talks focused on European […]
(Swiss Info) Swiss prosecutors have dropped a case against one of two men suspected of participating in the November 2020 terrorist attack in Vienna. The man, who was 24 years old at the time, visited the attacker in Vienna and stayed a […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss authorities have negotiated the release of two half-sisters, aged 15 and nine, from a Kurdish-controlled camp in Syria back to Switzerland. They were taken from Geneva to Syria by their mother in 2016 when she joined the Islamic […]
(Swiss Info) Six people have had their convictions upheld for detaining and attacking two other worshippers at a controversial mosque, which has since been shut down. The attack took place in the An’Nur mosque in the northeastern Swiss city of Winterthur in […]
(Swiss Info) The government has decided against introducing state-run training courses for imams as a way of preventing the potential radicalisation of extremist preachers. A religious neutrality clause in the Swiss constitution and an international comparison led the government to its conclusion […]
(Swiss Info) Switzerland has suspended repatriations to Afghanistan “until further notice owing to the changed situation in the country,” according to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). No new deportations of rejected asylum-seekers will be ordered, it said on Wednesday. Preparations for […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss justice authorities have indicted a Muslim preacher accused of racial discrimination and welfare fraud. Abu Ramadan will have to stand trial in a district court, the Bern cantonal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. The controversial imam of a […]
(Swiss Info) Voters have endorsed a series of measures allowing police to crack down on militant extremists and apply preventive detention methods, giving Switzerland one of the strictest anti-terrorism legislations in Europe. Final results show the law winning nearly 57% of the […]
(Swiss Info) Despite multiple pleas from international bodies, Switzerland refuses to repatriate adult detainees from Syrian camps, a policy that effectively leaves seven Swiss children stranded in the war-torn country. They were just four and nine years old, when in 2016 their […]
(Swiss Info) Both Swiss nationals who were arrested after the November 2020 attack in Vienna have been released from pre-trial detention. The older of the two — who was 24 when arrested — was released recently. The Attorney General’s Office told the […]
(Swiss Info) On June 13, Swiss voters will decide the fate of a new anti-terrorism law which has sparked controversy both domestically and abroad. For some, the law is a threat to the rights of innocent citizens, while others say it will […]
(Swiss Info) A third of the Swiss population say they feel disturbed by people perceived as “different,” with a fifth mentioning Muslims in particular, according to a government study. The Federal Statistical Office said on Thursday that tolerance had increased slightly but […]
(Swiss Info) Unlike their compatriots in Switzerland, the Swiss abroad rejected the “anti-burka” initiative and the free trade deal with Indonesia by a slim margin. The biggest difference in voting trend was on the electronic ID referendum, which the Swiss abroad wanted […]
(Swiss Info) Supporters of a people’s initiative to ban face coverings in public have carried the vote with a majority of 51.2%. A decade after another national vote that banned the building of minarets, Switzerland will introduce a clause in its constitution […]
(Swiss Info) Two Swiss men suspected of conspiring in a deadly terror attack in Vienna last year have been denied bail, according to media reports. The duo were aged 18 and 24 when they were arrested in the Swiss city of Winterthur in […]
(Swiss Info) Support for a proposed ban on facial coverings, including burkas, in Switzerland appears to be on the wane according to a new opinion poll. A law on a licensed electronic ID scheme looks set to fail, while a controversial free […]
(Swiss Info) More than ten years after a ballot on banning minarets, Swiss voters have the final say on a proposal to outlaw face coverings in public. Often referred to as “the burka ban,” the initiative by right-wing groups also includes a […]
(Swiss Info) Supporters of a proposed face-cover ban in Switzerland have a clear lead over opponents ahead of a nationwide ballot to be held in March, according to a new opinion poll, published on Friday. Attempts to challenge a government-licensed digital identification […]
(Swiss Info) A French court has sentenced a Swiss man to 15 years in prison for terror-related charges after finding him guilty of recruiting a group of men online to prepare terror attacks in France and Switzerland. The 31-year-old from Yverdon, canton […]
(Swiss Info) Opponents of new Swiss laws to combat terrorism have gathered enough signatures to challenge the controversial legislation by referendum. They argue that the law violates civil liberties, particularly those of children. The “No to Preventative Punishment” committee handed in 142,800 […]
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