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Switzerland: Amnesty report on policing

01 May 1994

Amnesty International published a report in March on the ill- treatment of suspects by the Swiss police. The report covers a four year, period 1990-1994, and contains cases of ill-treatment on arrest and in police custody. It concludes that on the evidence law enforcement officers had allegedly "used deliberate and unwarranted physical violence against people in their custody". Amnesty reached this conclusion not just on the material gathered by their own inquiry but also by taking into account that gathered by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the Association for the Prevention of Torture and the Swiss League of Human Rights. The "allegations of ill-treatment, which have been made over a period of several years...originate from different sources and their nature and content are largely consistent [and] taken together indicate a substantial cause for concern".

The Swiss Federal Court's response in 1993 to the 1991 Council of Europe's Committee report had previously indicated a system reluctant to recognise its faults. The Federal Court while accepting that an arrested person should have the right to inform a relative or third party rejected: the right of a suspect to have a lawyer present; the right of a detainee to be examined by a doctor of their choice; and the recommendation that police interrogations should be recorded.

The Association of Swiss Police Officers called the Amnesty report absurd and untenable on the grounds that it presented the views of those complaining but not of the police officers involved. However, Amnesty concern extended to the lack of redress for complainants. Most proceedings against the police were turned down, delayed or not accepted by the courts which often lead defence lawyers to advise their clients against taking proceedings as there is almost no chance of success.

Switzerland: Allegations of ill-treatment in police custody, Amnesty, March 1994, EUR 43/02/94; Komitee Schluss mit dem Schnffelstaat, Bern, Switzerland.