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© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Film director Roman Polanski could be released on bail for CHF4.5 million, the Swiss Federal Criminal high court ruled Wednesday 25 November, noting that the amount of money put up plus other security measures are adequate to cover the risk he will flee. The court has asked for his identity papers and he has been told to remain home with electronic surveillance while the US request for extradition is examined, a process that could take some weeks.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The man suspected of aiding terrorism who was arrested by French police 8 October was charged in Paris Monday 12 October and it appears likely he will remain in detention. Internet surveillance of terrorist groups led investigators to e-mail exchanges the 32-year-old man had with terrorist groups. Swiss television TSR quotes a source close to the man’s file who says that he had not moved to the stage of being involved in planning attacks but that he had shown his interest and desire to do so.
Update 12:50 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – EPFL, Lausanne’s Polytechnic institute, said Monday morning 12 October that it has blocked all computer access to an area where a possible terrorist suspect has been working, but it cannot yet confirm that the person under suspicion is indeed the person arrested 8 October in France. If so, he has been giving courses once a week at the university although he has recently been off work on sick leave. Britain’s Telegraph reported late Sunday night 11 October that the unnamed man arrested last Thursday south of Lyons, France on terrorism charges was working on projects at both Cern and EPFL. EPFL has not been given a name by French police. The university and Swiss Federal Police say they are ready to help French police, but no official requests have been made.
Cern LHC tunnel that runs under Geneva and neighbouring France
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Cern (European Centre for Nuclear Research) confirmed over the weekend that a man arrested with his brother in the south of France Thursday 8 October has worked at Cern since 2003 as a contract employee for an outside company, not as a Cern employee. “His work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism,” the organization says in a press release, noting that “Cern is a particle physics research laboratory whose research addresses fundamental questions about the universe. None of our research has potential for military application.”
French authorities say the two men, whose identity has not been released, were taken into custody in Vienne, south of Lyons.
Geneva, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Swiss public television station TSR reports that according to its sources Libya’s Qadaffi family has filed several charges against the state of Geneva, linked to the arrest last July in the city of Hannibal Qadaffi and his wife over an incident that involved one of their staff. Relations have been cold since then between Switzerland and Libya but a spokesperson for Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey says that the legal action is a good thing because it moves the dispute out of the diplomatic sphere and into a judicial one.
Laurent Nkunda, leader of the main rebel group of Tutsis in the DR Congo, was arrested as he fled to Rwanda. His arrest came as a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation was underway, with some 3,500 Rwandan troops entering DR Congo Tuesday, mainly to disarm the FDLR rebels, a Hutu group that Nkunda has been fighting. BBC AllAfrica on joint military venture
Update 20 November 2008 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 17-year-old Swiss employee in Crissier was kidnapped at knifepoint as he left work Tuesday, early in the evening. Employees noted the license number and called police, and a largescale manhunt was quickly underway. Lausanne newspaper 24 Heures Wednesday reported that the youth was lifted in front of Media Markt, where he works, and today’s paper says at least one of the men who kidnapped him was a fellow employee; police say they are still trying to establish the facts.
