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Switzerland: Amnesty report on policing (1)

01 January 1991

Switzerland: Amnesty report on policing
artdoc July=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 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
Schnüffelstaat, Bern, Switzerland.

Statewatch, vol 4 no 3, May-June 1994