(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 […]
(AFP) A Swiss woman was given a nine-year jail term on Monday for slashing two people in the name of the Islamic State group but her sentence was suspended so she can undergo psychiatric treatment. The criminal court judges found the woman, […]
(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 […]
(AP) Police in Switzerland said Tuesday that they found 23 migrants packed into the back of a delivery van during a traffic check on a highway. The Italian-registered vehicle was stopped early Monday morning as it headed northward on the A2 highway […]
(AFP) Swiss prosecutors requested a lengthy prison term Thursday for a woman who slashed two people in the name of the Islamic State group, while her lawyer argued she was insane and not a “terrorist.” Lead prosecutor Elisabetta Tizzoni called for the […]
(AP) Swiss police arrested two people Thursday in connection with a federal investigation into their suspected support for, or participation in, the banned Islamic State group, authorities said. The police operation, which also involved searches of four houses in the Geneva and […]
(AFP) A Swiss woman undergoing psychiatric treatment showed no remorse on Monday when she went on trial accused of trying to murder two women in the name of the Islamic State group. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is […]
(AFP) In a rare case of alleged Islamist “terrorism” in Switzerland, a woman will go on trial next week over a brutal knife attack on two shoppers at an upscale department store. The woman, who cannot be named, allegedly tried to slit […]
(Jerusalem Post) A member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization is one of the key speakers and leading figures of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement-affiliated August 27-28 protest of the 125th anniversary of 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 […]
(AP) Germany and Swiss authorities have carried out a joint operation to detain four people who are accused of membership in or support of the Islamic State group, officials said Tuesday. One man was detained in Germany on Monday. He is accused […]
(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 […]
(AP) Four people went on trial in the Swiss capital Tuesday over a protest against Turkey’s government four years ago where some demonstrators hoisted a banner showing a gun pointed at an image of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan next to the […]
(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 […]
(Breitbart) A Swiss man from the city of St. Gallen is facing trial after allegedly distributing propaganda for the Islamic State terrorist group between February 2018 and October 2019. The 27-year-old man, identified only by his initials A.Z., is set to face […]
(Reuters) Switzerland will not accept large groups of refugees arriving directly from Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday, as a Swiss army unit arrived in Kabul to assess the situation. The neutral Alpine country has promised to evacuate local workers for a […]
(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 […]
(Reuters) A Swiss law giving the police new powers to fight terrorism could expose people to torture abroad and risks harming children, human rights and legal experts told Reuters ahead of a nationwide referendum on the law. After a series of attacks […]
(AFP) From the UN to Amnesty, fears abound that a new Swiss anti-terror law, which grants sweeping new powers to police to prevent future attacks, threatens Switzerland’s heritage as a human rights leader. Shocked by the deadly terror attacks in neighbouring France […]
(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 […]
(Reuters) United Nations human rights experts urged Switzerland on Thursday to repatriate two Geneva sisters from a squalid camp in north-eastern Syria five years after the girls were allegedly abducted by their mother who joined Islamic State (IS). A senior Swiss foreign […]
(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 […]
(Reuters) The Swiss government on Tuesday defended a new anti-terrorism law that will be put to a nationwide referendum in June and that includes restrictive measures on child suspects. Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, a committee collected signatures to force a […]
(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 […]
(Anadolu) Turkey has deported a total of 2,764 foreign [terrorist] fighters (FTFs) of 67 different nationalities since 2019, the country’s Interior Ministry announced on Sunday. In a statement, the ministry said the FTFs had left their home countries to join ranks of […]
(Anadolu) The human rights board of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Saturday strongly condemned last Sunday’s referendum in Switzerland passing a ban of facial coverings. On Twitter, the OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) said it “strongly condemns Swiss […]
(JTA) Swiss voters passed a referendum on banning face-covering veils, prompting the country’s Muslim and Jewish groups to protest that infringement on religious freedoms. The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities and the Platform for Liberal Jews in Switzerland said the ban, which […]
(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 […]
(AP) The U.N. human rights office expressed dismay on Tuesday that Switzerland is set to join a few other countries where “actively discriminating against Muslim women” is legal, after Swiss voters approved a ban on face coverings like burqas and niqabs that […]
(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 […]
(AP) At a time when seemingly everyone in Europe is wearing masks to battle COVID-19, the Swiss go to the polls Sunday to vote on a long-laid proposal to ban face coverings, both the niqabs and burqas worn by a few Muslim […]
(Reuters) “Stop Extremism!” urges a red billboard in a quiet village outside Zurich above an image of a scowling woman wearing a black headscarf and face veil. The billboard is part of a campaign by the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to […]
(Al-Jazeera) Less than a year ago, Valentina made the decision to switch her headscarf for a niqab. “I feel better and safer wearing it,” she told Al Jazeera. “It is also an act of worship.” For the 32-year-old from Switzerland, who prefers […]
(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 […]
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