Le Nouvelliste says man has been under medical care for psychiatric problems
SION, SWITZERLAND – A Sion judge was attacked and suffered multiple injuries Saturday night 28 January in the city centre. Le Nouvelliste reported Monday morning that a man who has been under medical treatment and who suffers severe psychiatric problems has been arrested and taken to a special detention centre. Police confirmed at 11:00 Monday that a 29-year-old Swiss German who lives in Valais sought medical treatment Sunday morning for injuries he suffered Saturday night. He told medical staff that he was the man who attacked the judge, and he then turned himself into police.
The attack appeared in some way linked to the “Luca” case that has received heavy media attention, particularly in Valais, because the attacker called out “Luca, Luca” and was reported by the judge to say he would pay the magistrate back in kind.
Luca Mongelli is a youth who was badly injured, the victim of a bizarre and vicious attack in Veysonnaz in 2002. The case received heavy media attention at the time and, recently made it back into the news. The boy, age 7 at the time, was found injured and naked, in the snow, in Veysonnaz, after taking the family dog, Rocky, for a walk with Luca’s younger brother Marco. Luca was able to say immediately after the attack that humans had done this to him, but legal and medical analyses at the time showed Rocky to be the attacker, and a drawing done by the very young Marco, as well as his words at the time, pointed to the 30 kg 7-month-old dog. The case was suspended in 2004 and the family has called publicly for further investigation. Luca today is tetraplegic as a result of his injuries.
The Valais attorney general held a press conference on the affair 26 January (details below).
Saturday’s attack was violent and wrongly evoked the Luca case
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The London Wapping offices of News Corp, owner of British tabloid The Sun, were raided by Scotland Yard police early Saturday 28 January and during the morning Saturday four journalists and a police officer were arrested. The journalists are all current or former Sun journalists. The Metropolitan Police issued a statement that “Today’s operation is the result of information provided to police by News Corporation’s Management and Standards Committee. It relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately.”
The raid and arrests are part of an investigation dubbed Elveden into police corruption that involves The Sun possibly paying police for news information.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Guardian, Reuters
Bolder thieves: rush hour main street robbery in Rolle
Rolle, main street supermarket robbery Wednesday
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Armed robbers in the Lake Geneva region are getting bolder, with a supermarket hold-up on the main street of Rolle at 19:00 Wednesday night the latest example.
Two masked men broke into the Grand-rue store (police do not mention the Coop at that address specifically) at 19:00, after closing hours and “violently” threatened two of the four employees at gunpoint before making off with an undisclosed sum of money. The two, ages 26 and 30, were in shock but otherwise unharmed, say police.
Two other employees were not directly involved and there were no customers in the store at the time.
The thieves fled “in an unknown direction” and have not been found, despite a significant police search. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at +41 21 644 4444.
Description: 180-190cm tall for the first, both men of average build, wearing dark clothes, with one speaking French with a North African accent.
Valais thieves nabbed
Two thieves, ages 62 and 68, who live in France, were caught in the act of breaking and entering Monday 23 January at 23:00 in Evionnaz, canton Valais. Police were phoned after someone noticed suspicious lights on in an area business, on the Route du Simplon. The building was quickly surrounded and police caught one man attempting to leave the premises and soon found a second man parked at the train station. Stolen goods from three local businesses were found: money, cameras and cell phones.
The two have police records in France, Valais police note.
Vaud, 2 other armed robberies this week: hairdresser’s shop, bank machine client
Earlier this week Vaud police reported two holdups, one Wednesday in Payerne, where a hairdresser was robbed by a man with a knife just as she was closing, and the other a woman in Gland who had just taken money from a bank machine near the post office at midday.
The 44-year-old woman was robbed at gunpoint in Gland at 12:30 Saturday. His description: 20-25-year-old man, European in appearance, 175-180cm tall and thin, dressed in a black sweatshirt with hood, black scarf and gloves, black pistol. He fled in the direction of the train station and has not yet been found.
The Payerne hold-up was also carried out by a thin young man, 175cm in height, wearing dark clothes, speaking French with an accent that could not be identified. He fled the scene and despite a search with dogs and several police patrols, he has not yet been found.
Geneva police arrest 3 on several charges after Sunday night high-speed chase
Police in Geneva have three men, ages 19-23, under arrest following a high-speed chase late Sunday. All three reside in Geneva but are Kosovar, Serbian and Macedonian. The stolen car they were traveling in was spotted by police at the intersection of rue Lect and the routes du Nant-d’Avril and Satigny at 22:00. The driver of the car, instead of stopping when the patrol car put on its flashing lights, took off and led police on a high-speed chase. The car was finally stopped in Meyrin and the men taken into custody, where they admitted to a series of local crimes:
- the car was stolen 14 January when they were stopped by a police officer while they were stealing copper from a Lignon construction site; they escaped in the car, which the police officer managed to photograph, after one of them showed the office a Swiss passport, which turned out to be stolen
- the person whose passport was stolen reported it to Geneva police 16 January, showing a complaint filed earlier in Vaud: his house in canton Vaud had been broken into 3 January and he had filed a complaint with police there for the stolen passport and jewels
- the stolen car was reported by Vaud police in connection with unpaid petrol at a station in Yverdon 20 January
- two of the three held up a woman earlier Sunday evening, at a Vernier car wash, where one said he was a policeman and demanded her wallet; they then fled with the wallet, including her identity papers, which police found when they stopped the men. When they phoned the woman she said she had not yet had a chance to report the theft to police
- the man who had posed as a police officer admitted it and said that he had been driving the stolen car daily, without a license, and that on his own he had robbed a number of villas in Lausanne, Morges, Nyon and Fribourg.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A few dozen anti-World Economic Forum protesters, a small crowd estimated by one news agency at 100 persons, were stopped by police from four cantons Saturday 21 January in Bern. The group, which did not have a police permit, was protesting against capitalism and the forum, which starts 24 January in Davos, canton Graubuenden. They were detained while police checked their IDs.
The large police turnout was organized after calls for violence went out, according to one police official quoted by Swiss news agency ats.
Cartoon by Chappatte, Globe Cartoons ©2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Monday night Moscow protest of 5-8,000 people, followed by thousands taking to the streets Tuesday, has led to 600 people being arrested, according to Russian state media.
Those pulled in by police include opposition leaders, liberal Boris Nemtsov and liberal party Yabloko head Sergei Mitrokhin among them, as well as well-known political and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny.
The rally, which was licensed to go ahead, was organized to demonstrate against alleged ballot-rigging in last weekend’s Puma (parliament) elections, with claims that ballots were rigged in favour of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Unted Russia party. It won 238 of the 450 seats, a sharp drop from its previous majority of 315 seats.
Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the presidential council for human rights and civil society and advisor to President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday morning criticized the police. “If a person commits an administrative offence, namely, takes part in an unauthorized rally, the maximum penalty they may get is a fine. They do not face administrative arrest,” Ria Novosti quotes Fedorov as saying.
Reuters reports that pro-Putin youths tried to crash the rally and there were some scuffles. “After permitting the biggest opposition rally in Moscow for years on Monday evening, the police were out in large numbers. The Interior ministry said about 2,000 special troops were supporting almost 50,000 police, and some moved through the city centre in armored vehicles in a show of force.”
Links to other sites: CBC, Moscow Times, NDTV, Ria Novosti
AFP video
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud police have arrested three of the main members of a gang of youths, ages 20-25, who have been sabotaging rail lines in the Morges region and dumping apples onto cars from autoroute overpasses.
The group has been active since the spring of 2011, placing heavy objects on CFF anxd BAM rail lines, including rocks and bales of hay. They have worked mainly around Morges, Saint-Prex, Allaman, Etoy and Lonay but also in the Vallée de Joux, where they have set fire to a number of huts and other small buildings including local refuges used by residents for picnics and group parties.
Several police units from the region have worked together to find the culprits, who have put public transport users in “serious danger”, say police, and who have caused more than CHF350,000 in damages. One of the trio arrested is Italian and the other two Swiss; all live in the region.
They were caught when they dumped a load of apples on a police patrol that was checking speeders.
The three are part of a larger group whose composition appears to vary, and police are continuing their investigations to look for other members of the gang.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss news magazine Weltwoche reports that Kamal Mortada, 39, one of two servants who told Geneva police in 2008 that they had been beaten by Hannibal Qaddafi and his wife, was driving a Swiss Embassy vehicle that killed a pedestrian in the US 7 October.
The beatings at the Wilson Hotel in the centre of Geneva sparked a diplomatic crisis, with the son of the Libyan leader arrested. Switzerland later apologized to Libya for the arrest, although the son was not covered by diplomatic immunity. Some months later two Swiss businessmen were arrested and held by Libyan authorities for months without a trial before they were freed; the Qaddafi regime said at the time there was no link between the arrests in Geneva and in Tripoli.
AP has confirmed the information about the accident and Mortada, but says US records provide “scant” information about what Mortada was doing there, except that he has a Washington, DC driver’s license. The woman, 67, was in a DC crosswalk and had the right of way, but few other details about the accident are available, says AP, except that the victim, Trudith Rishikof, 65, of Washington does not appear to have been disabled in any way.
The embassy owns the vehicle and is listed as the home address of the driver. Mortada has not been charged, but he is not covered by diplomatic immunity.
Update 17:05 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The two US men who were jailed by Iran after hiking in the Iranian border area are reported by the Iranian state news agency to be free and en route home, and AP is reporting that a convoy has left Evin Prison, with Swiss and Omani diplomats and police and possibly the two men.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been held by Iran since they were arrested in July 2009 while hiking with Sarah Shourd. She was released and sent home on $500,000 bail, and the release of the men is also reportedly for similar bail. The two men were sentenced to eight years in prison for spying.
Switzerland, which represents US affairs in Iran, has been actively involved in negotiations to free the Americans but the Swiss government has remained mum on the affair.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two of the sons of Muammar Qadaffi are under arrest as rebels take over the city of Tripoli, in Libya Monday 22 August. But the man who led the country for more than 40 years has not yet been found and fighting rages on Monday morning around the Qadaffi compound in the city. The ICC has confirmed that Muammar Qadaffi’s son Saif Al-Islam, for whom it issued an arrest warrant 27 June, has been arrested. He is president of the Qadaffi International Charity and Development Foundation, a foundation registered under Swiss law.
Breaking news from Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Guardian, International Criminal Court/ICC
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The arrest 20 July of 21 hackers, some of whom are part of the loose networks Anonymous and LulzSec, is part of a wider net to catch computer hackers that included 60 searches, according to the United States Justice Department, but reactions, mainly in the US and Europe, have been tempered by skepticism. Hacks on sites, possibly including Nato, have continued since the arrests and there are doubts that the 14 Anonymous people arrested are ringleaders. The group has close ties to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and has been tied to attacks on PayPal’s eBay in retaliation for the company’s refusal to accept donations for WikiLeaks. Most of the arrests were in the US, but four people were arrested in The Netherlands and one in London, with police in both cases working with US authorities.
The US crime of conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Each count of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Links to other sites: Christian Science Monitor, CNET, IP Watch, Main Justice
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nineteen drivers were hauled in by Fribourg police and 14 of their souped-up cars were seized in an operation that came to light in part thanks to YouTube videos the young men made of their exploits. The drivers, aged 18 to 27, raced regularly on stretches of autoroute between Fribourg and Bulle, in particular on the Givisiez semi-autoroute and the A12.
Police noticed, starting in early 2010, that several drivers were using Givisiez and A12 stretches as racetracks, driving at speeds of up to 190 kph.
They made their first arrest 28 July 2010. The 28-year-old driver admitted to taking part in races and to making videos posted on YouTube where he recorded his speeds. He had been arrested in March 2010 when he was involved in an accident on the A12, driving 190 kph, which resulted in damages but no injuries.
Geneva police chase repeat offender for an hour, into family gardens area on city outskirts
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 53-year-old Italian living in Yverdon-les-Bains died Wednesday night as police were questioning him over traffic violations, with his death apparently linked to longterm health problems.
Two police officers noticed the man’s car at 21:30 Wednesday because he was driving without lights, the car had no bumpers or license plates. Despite their efforts to pull him over he continued to drive to his home, where they questioned him for 20 minutes and discovered that he did not have a valid drivers license, before he suddenly collapsed.
The two officers tried unsuccessfully for 30 minutes to resuscitate him, joined by an ambulance team and the man’s son, who later confirmed that the police had acted appropriately and had not been aggressive.
Geneva police find stolen car, spend an hour chasing suspected thief
Police in Geneva were led on a high-speed chase Wednesday afternoon by a man who first tried to escape on a motorcycle, then in a car and finally on foot before he was captured while trying to hide in an area of family gardens in
The incident began early in the afternoon when police spotted a black Peugeot with Valais license plates parked in the Montbrillant area. Police had been seeking the stolen car, which was involved in an accident 15 months ago. A man walked towards the car but as police officers approached him he got on a nearby motorcycle and sped off. Police gave up the chase to discourage him from continuing to drive in busy areas, including the Vernier tunnel where he sped between two lanes of traffic. He returned to the Peugeot and drove off in it, chased by police. Once again they lost him, but caught up with him when his car overturned in Aire-la-Ville, here he then tried to hide in the gardens.
The man has several previous traffic offenses.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A drug bust this past weekend in Geneva resulted in five people arrested and 10 kilos of cocaine seized.
According to information first presented by the Tribune de Genève, and confirmed by Geneva prosecutor, Adrian Holloway, a Spanish national and four Colombians were arrested for their alleged involvement in the trafficking network.
According to Holloway, a forty-year-old Spaniard driving a car with Vaud license plates was detained in the early hours of Sunday 17 April at the Mategnin border with France. He was reportedly carrying 10 kilos of cocaine in the car.
The man was being followed very closely by another driver, a Colombian national, who was then arrested by authorities. The individual is suspected of being the leader of the trafficking gang.
Two more men were arrested in Geneva and one woman was arrested in Fribourg in connection with the bust, all Colombian nationals allegedly tied to a drug trafficking network in their country of origin.
Police in London have brought charges against 149 of 201 people arrested Sunday 27 March part of a violent group that spun off from a massive, peaceful rally in the British capital. At least 250,000 people took part in a march organized by the TUC, trade unions organization, to protest government spending cuts.
Police have told UK media that while there were advance indications on the Internet that violence was planned, virtually the entire city was targeted, making it difficult for the 4,450 police officers on duty to protect property. A luxury shop in Piccadilly, where a sit-in was staged, was one of the more visible targets.
The UK government says it is pushing ahead with its plans to make £81 billion in budget cuts.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Telegraph
Guardian video, March for the Alternative, Fortnum & Mason occupied
Al Jazeera TV signal cut, told to shut down, while China blocks “Egypt” Twitter searches
President Hos Mubarak, facing what Reuters refers to as “unprecedented pressure” on his regime, is holding closely watched meetings with military officials in the country, as Egypt has its sixth day of protests against Mubarak’s 30-year-old presidency. Saturday 29 January Al Jazeera TV, which operates out of Qatar, was told it could no longer work in the country, cancelling accreditation for journalists and Nilesat, an Egyptian satellite, cut its signal. The shutdown affected the network’s operations in some other countries as well, but Al Jazeera says it is able to offer viewers its new from other signals. It claims to have some 400 reporters worldwide, and its Arab world coverage is some of the most thorough among news agencies.
In Cairo, thousands of people have continued to gather despite curfews and a ban on crowds, with looting reported and gangs reportedly freeing prisoners from jails. Numbers of people reported to have died in protests vary, but it appears that more than 100 have been killed, and the government claims that it has arrested hundreds of looters.
China, according to Reuters, began blocking “Egypt” as a search term on micro-blogs, the Chinese equivalents of Twitter, in what it says appears to be a sign “aimed at preventing events in Egypt from setting an example of political opposition at home.”
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, Reuters, Xinhua
Sudan’s Islamist opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi and several aides were arrested Monday evening 17 January at his home in Khartoum, the day after he told news agency AFP that if Sudan’s President Al-Bashir did not share power, street protests like those in Tunisia could happen. Al-Turabi was once Al-Bashir’s close ally but the two fell out in 1999 and Al-Turabi formed a splinter group.
Voting over the south seceding from the rest of Sudan appears to have gone relatively smoothly, with the results now expected to show a clear vote for independence, but tensions remain high in the region.
The 78-year-old Al-Turabi was arrested and held for two months in 2009.
Links to other sites: allAfrica, Al Jazeera
Police in Mauritius have told the BBC that one of the three men arrested on suspicion of murdering Michaela Harte McAreavey has confessed to the crime. She was strangled when she returned to the couple’s room to fetch biscuits for tea, while she was on her honeymoon after marrying Gaelic football player John McAreavey. The three men who were arrested are hotel employees and police have told media who have flocked to the island paradise that the men entered the room two minutes before the 27-year-old woman, who was married 30 December.
Police say DNA samples they are gathering as well as information from the electronic room key will provide crucial evidence.
Bonneteau, or shell and pea, on the streets of Geneva (photo: ©2010 Peter Brodbeck on flickr)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police warned the public in mid-May about a popular street game scam, called bonneteau in French, “shell and pea” in English, saying that seven groups appeared to be operating.
The warning did little to stop the con men, it appears and this week the Liberal political party has been handing out flyers to warn the public about the trick, just days after the canton distributed 30,000 flyers to businesses and international organizations to alert them.
The Tribune de Geneve today carries a story explaining why the police do little to stop the trick that is a close cousin of three card monte, an older card game trick.
Police have been keeping an eye on the groups who play it, but say that it takes about half a day of plainclothes police work plus 20 officers to nab a group of six or seven and have enough solid proof that what they are doing is illegal: it isn’t a priority for their limited personnel resources, according to the Geneva newspaper.
Geneva street scam (photo ©2010 Herbi Ditl on flickr)
The police department says it runs regular checks on players as part of the Figaro police operation, particularly around Paquis and the train station.
The game is simple, according to one observer, “They hide the ball behind their thumb and so when you choose a box, there’s actually no ball under any of them. Then when they return another one to show you it was there, they can quickly release the ball again and make you believe it was there all the time! Quite good dexterity, but a real scam! And indeed, they make thousands of francs a day!”
The Geneva police department describes it this way:
A small ball is moved under three cups or match boxes and the player has to guess where the ball is at the moment when play stops. It’s a gambling trick, in other words. The player picks a box, and loses each time he or she guesses.
What is in fact happening is that the person with the ball is very quick and manages to hide the ball, not under one ofthe boxes but in his hand. He makes it reappear at just the right moment, in exactly the right place. It’s a really simple trick for an experienced magician.
They rarely accept bets of under CHF100 and these can go up to several thousand francs for one “pass”. In addition to the person with the ball there are usually three to five others involved in the game. While one of them takes care of the box two others pretend to be betting, in order to encourage bystanders to join in. Another two or three stay a dozen metres away to keep an eye out for police and signal when they spot them. They then quickly disperse and melt into the crowd.
In fact, it’s not gambling but confidence trick. A word of caution to amateur photographers: the game organizers can be threatening if you try to film or photograph them.
In France, bonneteau players reportedly risk a fine of up to €5,000 and a prison sentence, but as in Switzerland, catching them is a tricky business.
Lausanne police provide images of stolen jewelry to help victims identify missing pieces
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – If you have jewelry that went missing in 2009 or early 2010, you would do well to contact the city of Lausanne, which is working with city police to identify the owners of a spectacular haul of jewels made in February.
Lausanne police seized 900 items of gold jewelry at the time, most of it stolen from homes in the region, including 150 items from Geneva.
The investigation, carried out with Vaud police, that led to the haul took several months, but resulted in the arrest of two thieves and two jewelers who were receiving some of the stolen goods, police say. Several kilos of goods were discovered at a gold foundry in Bienne, where one of the jewelers had sent the items to be melted down.
What to do if you think your missing jewels are part of the haul
Victims who believe their jewels are part of the collection will need to send an e-mail to eurojud@lausanne.ch with the number of the item from the police photo page (see image at left) and contact information.
The police will then get in touch. Alternatively, they can phone Lausanne police at 021 315 4000, from 08:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00.
Links to other sites: 20 Minutes (Fre), Vaud Police
Police say two-canton sweep nets alleged drug dealers, cocaine, money
Cocaine bust in Lausanne - Photo Lausanne police
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Three people arrested, 2.5 kilos of cocaine at 80 percent purity, false identity documents and almost CHF60,000 in cash were seized during a police investigation that lasted several months and involved cantons Vaud and Geneva.
The police operation began in 2009 when a Lausanne-based drug dealer was arrested for possession of cocaine and several thousand francs at his residence. Soon after, police were able to establish that his two main suppliers lived in Geneva.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The police operation called “Figaro” has logged 1,200 hours in its first week, with 300 people brought in for questioning and 35 arrests, according to city police. The operation is designed to clean up the city centre in Geneva following a sharp increase in petty crimes in 2009. Most of those stopped were questioned about thefts and drug sales.
The greater police presence, notably with more foot patrols, covers four districts: Pâquis, Eaux-Vives, Rive and the area around Cornavin train station.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), Tribune de Geneve (Fre)
Nyon train station, CFF controllers will be helped by new transport police
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss transport police, who will have the right to make provisional arrests, will become part of the CFF rail system starting in 2011.
The Federal Council Wednesday 27 January approved legislation drawn up by a parliamentary transport commission which will create two security systems for public transport companies. The transport police, who will be identifiable by their uniforms, will be employed only by the CFF, and they will have greater policing powers than those given to security officers, who will be used by smaller transport companies.
Geneva / Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police in Geneva and Vaud are alerting the public to scams in recent days. Police in Geneva arrested two men for stealing a bag carried by a person crossing the Mont Blanc bridge in the city centre 3 January. One man stole the bag while the other alerted the owner that he had a spot on his coat, which in fact the thief had created by dumping yogurt on the coat.
Police in Nyon have arrested two people in connection with scams 1 January in the town’s centre. They told several victims they were plainsclothes police officers. They took identity and credit cards and small amounts of cash, saying they were checking the cards, then did not return them. Police are looking for other victims of the pair. Tel: +41 21 557 9621.
Update 2 22:50 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Reports were published Tuesday evening 1 December by several international news agencies that two Swiss businessmen, Max Goeldi and Rachid Hamdani, have been sentenced to 16 months in prison and fined $1,671 each by a Libyan court. Reuters received an e-mail confirmation from the Swiss foreign affairs ministry late Tuesday night confirming the news. The men have been sentenced on visa irregularities charges, according to the Swiss spokesman, Reuters reports. They are currently both at the Swiss Embassy. The two have been unable to leave the country since July 2008, shortly after Hannibal Qadaffi, the son of Libya’s leader, was arrested in Geneva for abusing his staff at a hotel. The arrest sparked a diplomatic row which has not been resolved, and the new sentences could strain tensions even further.
The two men, in Libya on business at the time of their arrest, were at the centre of intense negotiations in August 2009, when Muammar Qadaffi appears to have promised to help release them soon. Agencies reporting the story quote an unnamed Libyan official who also says the men face another trial, but no details were provided.
TSR, Swiss public television, early Tuesday evening reported that an official at ABB, the multinational that employs Goeldi, confirmed to the station that the men had been sentenced.
(parody video) Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Uefa confirmed in a press conference that there have been a number of arrests by German police in an investigation into a massive match fixing scandal involving about 200 matches. Media reports say there have also been two arrests in Switzerland, unconfirmed by Uefa. There have been more than 50 police raids in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Britain. The investigations were triggered by suspicions of rigged betting, especially in the German, Turkish, Belgian, Croatian, Austrian, Slovenian, Hungarian and Bosnian leagues, in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League and Europa League.
New York, NY (GenevaLunch) – Six people involved with hedge funds have been arrested in the US by the FBI and charged with insider trading. The group includes Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, and who is on a Forbes magazine list of the world’s wealthiest people, worth an estimated $1.3 billion. Rajaratnam held a plane ticket for Geneva for the coming week, prosecutors say. Galleon is estimated to have $7 billion in assets under management. It appears that the group was arrested now because Rajaratnam had been tipped off that one of them was being listened to by the FBI.
Update 12:23 Geneva, Switzerland and Brazil (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is being widely reported as saying it will lodge a complaint with the Geneva-based World Trade Organization over illegal waste shipments from Britain, the government announced Friday 24 July.
A large number of containers (Ed. note: reports vary from 41 to 99) of possibly toxic waste that were shipped from Britain to Brazil have been at the centre of heated debate and diplomatic discussions since the waste was discovered in mid-July in Brazil. Three men have been arrested in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK while officials investigate if they used loopholes in the law to mix household and clinical waste illegally.
The Times, UK, reports that “The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Resources (Ibama) said that the waste included syringes, bags of blood, condoms, nappies and used bandages. The shipping manifest stated that the contents were recyclable plastic.” Shipping waste is subject to the Basel Convention and, according to Reuters, Brazil’s plans to return to England the rotting piles of some 1,600 tons of garbage could run into problems.
Related, Guardian, UK
Update 12:25 The capital of the Chinese western province of Xinjiang appears to be turning into a battleground, with thousands (AFP reports 10,000) of Han Chinese, a minority in the region but the majority in China, taking to the streets armed with sticks, bats, chains and other handy weapons, ready to fight after their neighbourhoods were attacked by Uighurs, the local population’s majority group, over the weekend of 4-5 July. The government has imposed a strict curfew and police are out in force in the city following the arrest of 1,434 people by Monday. A small group of 200 protestors, mainly women and children, took to the streets Tuesday morning to plead with police, saying their relatives had been unfairly accused.
More than 150 people died in the weekend violence, mainly Han Chinese, according to official sources, although “Uighur groups”, reports the BBC, say the numbers are higher and the dead are mainly Uighurs, a Muslim minority. The unrest appears to have been sparked by a dispute in June between Uighurs and Han in a factory in southeastern China but the government says it has “evidence that separatist World Uighur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer masterminded the riot.” Official news agency Xinhua reports clashes and “chaos” breaking out in other parts of the province Tuesday morning and it mentions that the Chinese embassy in Brussels was damaged by supporters of Xinjiang separatists Monday. The embassy has remained closed Tuesday.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) — The ongoing sense of insecurity in the colourful Geneva district of Paquis provoked a lively debate between inhabitants and local politicians on TSR’s Infrarouge (Fre) programme Tuesday, 19 May. The problem of drug dealers and pickpockets, many of them illegal immigrants or squatters, who are arrested but released, contributes to the sense of impotence felt by the area’s inhabitants, argued some residents.
Four men have been arrested in New York, USA, after they agreed to buy missiles in an undercover operation. The men are being charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States. The FBI (US Federal Bureau of Investigation) says the men were plotting to leave a bomb at the Riverdale Synagogue in the Bronx, then travel 85 km north of New York City to aim missiles at military planes. One of the men is the son of immigrants from Afghanistan. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement that their arrest shows that “homeland security threats against New York City [are] sadly all too real”. Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, New York Times, Xinhua
In related FBI news a Canadian citizen, originally from Somalia and resident in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the US, pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to Al Qaeda.
