LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 30-year-old French man who lives in the Lausanne area died Sunday 29 January while diving at Rossinière, near where the Chaudanne river comes out, a Fribourg region spot popular with speleologists. Canton Vaud police say he dived alone, but when those caving with him saw air come up one immediately dived to his rescue and brought him, unconscious, to the surface. Despite first aid by the group he was with, he died at the scene of the accident, despite the arrival of an ambulance crew and emergency doctor.
Police have taken his diving equipment for the investigation.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, finance minister, will be president for 2012
Alain Berset, Socialist, replaces Calmy-Rey
Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss president, says her farewells to parliament 14 December
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Alain Berset, the Swiss senate’s youngest member at age 31, was elected easily with 126 votes in a second round of voting, to Switzerland’s government.
The election of the Socialist from Fribourg completes the election of the 7-member government. He replaces Micheline Calmy-Rey, also a Socialist.
The two UDC candidates who were presented for several of the seven slots, failed to come close to majorities.
The party’s weak showing, on the heels of its parliamentary losses in October, reinforces the sense there is a parliamentary shift towards the centre.
The government now comprises one right-wing party member, three from the centre-right, one centre and two left.
New government member Alain Berset, Socialist, replaces Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is retiring (©2011 Reuters/Keystone/pool)
Berset is the only new member, with the others re-elected.
Parliament elects a chancellor, president and vice-president following the election of the government; chancellor Corina Casanova remains in her post with 186 votes out of 206.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, finance minister, was elected president for 2012, with 174 votes out of 211 for the one-year post that rotates among Federal Council members.
Those watching US-Swiss talks over US investigations into Swiss banks will be relieved, for the lack of a change at the top in Switzerland will smooth the way for the discussions to be concluded. Widmer-Schlumpf has said recently, in her role as finance minister, that she is keen to see a solution found quickly.
The Swiss government’s seven members and their parties, in order of Wednesday’s voting:
Doris Leuthard, PDC (Christian Democrat), centre
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf , PBD, centre right
Ueli Maurer, UDC (People’s Party), right
Didier Burkhalter, PBD, centre right
Simonetta Somaruga, PS (Socialist), left
Johann Schneider-Ammann, PLR, centre right
Alain Berset, PS (Socialist) , left
Swiss parliament voting for new federal council 14 December 2011 (©2011 Reuters/Keystone/pool)
The next complete re-election is in December 2015.
Useful links:
Wikipedia on Swiss political parties and their positions
Analysis of the Federal Council election in English, swissinfo
Details of the votes, Swiss Parliament (Fr)
Background on Swiss political system from ch.ch
Some of the stolen property recovered by police in Vaud and Valais
CANTON VALAIS, SWITZERLAND – A gang of 16 that had stolen some CHF650,000 in goods from homes in Valais, with similar levels of theft in cantons Vaud and Fribourg, has been dismantled, Valais police say.
Three members of the band were caught in March near Ollon, canton Vaud, and police in the three cantons worked closely together to uncover the rest of the group.
Those arrested, ages 20 to 38, are from Spain, Ecuador and Chile.
They worked by breaking into homes and stealing mainly cash, jewelry and electronic equipment, valued at CHF650,000.
In addition to the amount of the thefts, several thousand francs in damage were reported to police.
Moleson (photo: Gruyere tourism)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Outrage over Swiss federal military department plans to put a lighted telecommunications tower on top of Moléson, a peak in the district of Gruyere in canton Fribourg, has forced the government to back down and halt construction until at least 2012.
Construction work began this week and the project immediately prompted comments by local and cantonal officials, who had not been informed in advance.
The Moléson peak is a landmark in the area, notes TSR in its report on the controversy.
Construction projects generally need advance approval and major projects are presented for public comment, but under Swiss law military projects are exempt from this and follow a streamlined procedure, as long as they do not have a major impact on the landscape or heritage aspects of the building site. The public and politicians in the area are saying the project does not meet these requirements.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Scouts movement has been shocked by the death of a 13-year-old who fell 300 metres to his death during a hike Wednesday in canton Fribourg. Tighter controls were put in place a year ago by the group, reports TSR, to ensure the safety of young Scouts while nevertheless helping them learn to appreciate nature and the rugged outdoors.
A group of four youths, all age 13, was on a 48-hour hike from Charmey in Fribourg to Château-d’Oex in canton Vaud when the accident occurred in the area of Gruyere. One of them, from Bienne, slipped on the steep slopes, then fell. The others, in a state of shock, stayed put but were able to alert authorities.
Video, TSR (available only in Switzerland)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A policeman who shot and killed a passenger in a car on the A1 autoroute in 2010 was justified in using his gun, and correct procedures were filed, a Swiss court has ruled. The case was closed 15 June.
The 18-year-old from France who died from a gunshot wound was in a stolen car, one of three luxury cars stolen shortly before from a garage in Fribourg, by a group from Lyon. The brothers came up against a roadblock on the A1 autoroute and when they did not slow down a police officer waiting at the roadblock on the Vaud-Fribourg border opened fire. The youth died at the scene of the accident and his brother was jailed.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A scam that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs being lost by small businesses in canton Fribourg in recent weeks has now spread to canton Vaud, say cantonal police.
Small businesses and craftsman are the target: they receive by mail their company’s supposed entry in what appears to be an official register or yearbook, are asked to correct it and/or sign it and send it back to a fax number that starts with the Geneva prefix of 022.
They are then billed exorbitant amounts for the update and if they complain they are sent threatening letters by lawyers.
Scientific investigations rule out link to missing woman, sleeping tablets in home
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss police, in an update on the case of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp Friday 25, say scientific investigations have now ruled out two possible trails.
The father taking the girls to Corsica remains the strongest hypothesis, but investigators are now also focusing on the father’s whereabouts and actions between the time he left Switzerland and the time he arrived in Marseille. They renewed their appeal Friday to anyone who was in Corsica the first week of February driving a dark station wagon with Swiss plates, to let them know. Witnesses on Corsica may have confused the two cars, they underscore, complicating inquiries there.
No link to Katia Iritano’s disappearance
Police in cantons Vaud and Fribourg say scientific investigations ordered by public prosecutor Eric Gilliéron show that there was never any telephone contact between father of the twins and Katia Iritano, who went missing from Montbovon in Fribourg 25 January, nor does there appear to have been any communication between the two. This possible thread in the case has now been thrown out.
Police research the disappearance from father’s house of suitcases, bags
Scientific examinations of objects taken from the father’s residence have not turned up any evidence of sleeping tables or other potentially toxic drugs, they say, reducing the likelihood that the girls may have been killed there, by their father.
Police are trying to determine what happened to suitcases and bags that are missing from the father’s house.
Police officer Jean-Christophe Sauterel reminds, in a press release, that a credible witness early in the case gave evidence that the father and his daughters were in his car on the beach at Préverenges, near Morges, Sunday 30 January about 15:30.
Préverenges sits between St Sulpice, where the family lived, and Morges.
Some 15 minutes later his car was located in Morges, thanks to his cell phone. There is no evidence one way or the other about the girls’ presence in the car at this point.
Paucity of information on father’s movements between Switzerland and Marseille, France
There remain large gaps in the information about where the father was and what he was doing between the time he left Switzerland and his arrival in Marseille, and police are pursuing this.
Sauterel notes that “Investigators continue to count on information provided by any possible witnesses, in Toulon, Marseille, Corsica and Switzerland. Anyone who can provide any information about the presence in Corsica of another dark vehicle with Swiss license plates is asked to contact the police commissariat or the nearest police station, or to telephone the Swiss hotline +41 21 644 8231 or the French numéro vert 08 05 01 0707.
Pubic transport in Switzerland is not free, but companies will have trouble, for now, fining cheats
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A Swiss high court has ruled in favour of a Fribourg woman who refused to pay a CHF80-100 fine for taking the bus without having a ticket.
The Swiss parliament will now have to scramble to plug a hole in the federal transport law, which, since a recent change was made, allows transport companies to fine people who have not vaidated their tickets but it overlooks travellers who simply don’t have a valid ticket.
The ATS news agency says the second group is a far larger problem for transport companies, and quotes the public prosecutor in Fribourg, Fabien Gasser, as saying that 150-200 similar cases are sitting in files, waiting for the Federal Tribunal in Lausanne to judge the Fribourg woman’s case.
Some tickets issued by Swiss transport systems have to be punched to validate them, for example 10-trip passes, but most are valid once the ticket is issued. The law specifically mentions those who have not stamped or punched tickets that need validating, but it fails to specifically list those who fraudulently ride trains, buses and trams without paying.
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Irina Lucidi Schepp, the mother of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia, appeared on the Italian television programme “Domenica cinque” Sunday, on channel 5, saying that she cannot believe a man who loved his daughters could kill them, and until she sees them she will find it hard to accept that possibility.
She also told her Italian interviewers that several riddles or mysteries remain. She saw a woman’s coat at the home where the husband from whom she was separated lived, but she has no idea who it belongs to, and the woman has not returned to claim it. She has asked those who knew her husband if he was having an affair and the answer appears to be no.
Swiss police said several days ago they have no evidence Matthias Schepp was involved with another woman.
Italian media have been suggesting the Schepp may have in some way been involved with a 27-year-old woman who has been missing from canton Fribourg since 25 January, five days before the father and his twin daughters disappeared. Eric Cottier, Swiss magistrate for the case, who was also interviewed for the Italian TV programme, says he doesn’t believe so.
Italian police are also reportedly checking a pen that may have been acquired by the father on his return from Corsica, found near the place where he died, to see if there is evidence the children handled it. They continue to try to glean information from the shattered GPS navigation system from Schepp’s car.
Cottier and police in canton Vaud continue to insist that all possibilities remain open, however, including the possibility that the twins never left Switzerland.
Matthias Schepp committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train in Cerignola, southern Italy, 3 February.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), Il gironale (Ita)
Solar panels are being tested in a solar park on top of the EPFL polytechnic institute in Lausanne, by Romande Energie, one part of a Swiss push to develop solar power
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Solar panels have the potential to supply far more home heating, including heating water, than previously thought, a new Swiss study shows. “Home heating that relies entirely on renewable energy, leaving untouched the limited biomass potential, is on our doorstep,” an Energy Office statement on the study notes.
Homes in rural areas could have 75 percent of their home’s heating requirements taken care of by solar panels, using wood to make up the difference, the study mandated by the Swiss Federal Energy Office concludes, based on a review of 1,000 homes in the Fribourg area.
Solar energy could supply 13 percent of home heating needs in urban areas, based on a study of some 200 homes in Zurich. The difference is due in large part to the tendency to have several floors in city buildings, rarely the case in rural areas.
Two types of houses were taken into consideration:
- the first a standard home today, eight litres with a 104kWh/m2 consumption = 8 litres heating oil for ambient temperature and 24kWh for hot water
- the second in line with recent energy standards, three litres, with a consumption of 54 kWh/m2 = 3 litres heating oil, 24 kWh for hot water.
Each of these was studied with two options, either a 100-litre thermal accumulator/m2 of solar panel or an optimized thermal accumulator, which will soon be available, thanks to technological progress.
A three-day event where hundreds of sellers fill over 7,000m2 with second-hand items and antiques for sale.
Location: Fribourg
Link out: http://www.brocplumett.ch/news.htm
Start date: 19 Nov 2010
End date: 21 Nov 2010
Environmental research becomes more visible thanks to new database
Business and environmental education, non-voting “votes” for foreigners, teacher training in int’l education part of the action
Business and the environment: no longer unnatural bedfellows in Switzerland
Geneva and Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Researchers worldwide will now be able to connect more easily with Swiss researchers in environmental studies thanks to a new database hosted by the Federal Office for the Environment. The database, officially online as of Monday 8 November, regroups more than 1,000 projects at 10 universities, the two EPFs (polytechnic institutes in Lausanne and Zurich), 7 specialized graduate schools and 30 private and public institutions involved in the field. The publicly available information can be searched by institution, canton or research area (or by key words) in English, French, German and Italian.
Geneva’s Graduate Institute opens new international environmental centre
One of the newcomers to the group is the Graduate Institute’s Centre for International Environmental Studies (CIES) in Geneva, launched 3 November with a packed house at the opening day lecture.
Chocolate Week celebrates artisanal chocolate in Lake Geneva region
Switzerland signs major new cocoa agreement
Swiss artisanal chocolate comes in a wide variety of forms, but also flavours / chocolate sheets from Tristan, Bougy-Villars, canton Vaud
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chocolate is very much in the news in Switzerland this week, with cantons Fribourg, Geneva and Vaud celebrating chocolate week and the federal government signing the International Cocoa Agreement to support the cocoa production industry and encourage sustainable development and fair trade policies.
Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest supplier of top quality chocolate and cocoa products, added its own sweet news Thursday 4 November with positive results for fiscal year 2009/2010: profits up 10.9 percent to CHF251.7 million.
The Zurich company’s turnover was CHF5.21 billion francs, up 6.8 percent and it says it now looks for 6-8 percent growth in production volume in the next three years.
70% of world cocoa comes from W Africa, says the World Cocoa Foundation (chart: Barry Callebaut, Zurich)
The company has 7,500 employees in 26 countries, with 40 production facilities. It is active in sustainable development efforts in the cocoa industry, pointing out in its reports that without cocoa, there would be no chocolate, and a viable cocoa industry is therefore an “imperative” for the company. It is a key member of the World Cocoa Foundation, created in 2000 to improve cocoa production conditions, with cocoa a product supplied almost entirely by developing countries.
Switzerland signs International Cocoa Accord
Switzerland Wednesday 3 November announced that it is signing the 2010 International Cocoa Agreement, which creates a discussion forum for producers, consumers, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and governments that will initially look at how to create a certification system for cocoa.
Bulk of world cocoa producers very poor
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss Tell awards for North American companies operating in Switzerland will go to four US companies with offices in four cantons, to recognize what Switzerland considers significant inward investment projects by North American companies in 2009. The Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion office in New York says the awards, named after Swiss hero William Tell, will be given 8 November in New York by Switzerland’s newly arrived Ambassador to the US Manuel Sager.
The winners:
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva-Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) was given a Halloween bruising 31 October in its home rink, Les Vernets, losing to HC Fribourg-Gottéron 0-2 (0-0, 0-1 0-1). A packed house of more than 7,000 fans watched the match. GSHC’s record for the season is now 6 wins, 10 losses and the team has slipped to seventh place in the rankings.
In other hockey-related news, La Liberté in Fribourg carries a front-page story about zero tolerance at the ice rinks in Switzerland: an off-duty police officer has been sanctioned for spitting on GSHC players and team officials last March when Fribourg and GSHC played a match at the St Leonard arena. He’s now on the “Hoogan” list of hooligans, and he’s been banned from ice hockey matches for a year. His employer, the Fribourg Cantonal Police, has sanctioned him.
The first Science Fiction and Fantasy convention will be taking place on 2 and 3 October as part of the Fribourg fair.
Dave Prowse who played the role of Darth Vador, and Julian Glover who has played plenty of mean characters including Star Wars, Indiana Jones and James Bond movies, will be in attendance. (Link to the sci-fi fair: http://www.foire-de-fribourg.ch/fr/invites/sci-fri-across-the-universe.html)
The Fribourg Fair ends 10 October. Entry is free for children 15 and under.
Link to the Fribourg fair:
Location: Fribourg
Link out: http://www.foire-de-fribourg.ch/fr/accueil.html
Start date: 1 Oct 2010
End date: 10 Oct 2010
Monsignor Bernard Genoud in 2006 - Photo Charly Rappo
(video) Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Monsignor Bernard Genoud, 68, Roman Catholic bishop for Lausanne, Geneva, Fribourg and Neuchatel, has died from lung cancer.
Genoud died 21 September at a hospice in Fribourg. The bishop was born in Châtel-St-Denis in 1942 and was ordained as a priest in 1968.
He made headllines in 2008 when he publicly asked forgiveness for the actions of pedophile priests.
The diocese has announced that the body can be viewed starting Thursday 23 September at 11:00, to 24 September at 18:45.
His funeral will take place 25 September at the St Nicolas cathedral in Fribourg at 10:00.
A simultaneous memorial mass will be held Friday 24 September at 19:00 at:
- the Saint-Nichola’s Cathedral in Fribourg
- the Sacred Heart Church in Lausanne
- the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Geneva
- the Our Lady of Assumption Basilica in Neuchatel
Video, biography, TSR (Fre)
More electonic voting should make it easier for more Swiss abroad to have their say
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Five additional cantons will be able to offer electronic voting to their citizens in November 2010 federal elections, bringing the total number to 12 cantons, nearly half of the country. The Swiss federal electoral commission announced the decision 8 September. The November ballots take electronic voting, in which Switzerland is a world leader, a step further: this is the first time a popular initiative or citizens-created referendum item, will be voted on.
Some 190,000 voters abroad, or 4.1 percent of the voting population, will be able to vote electronically. Voting from abroad has long posed a problem for the nearly 700,00 (close to 10 percent of the total population) Swiss citizens abroad because ballots are mailed three weeks before votes, which in many cases does not allow enough time to forward the material and have the voter return it for the deadline.
The cantons with electronic voting options in November are:
A three-hour walk through Fribourg exploring Serrières, where the Suchard chocolate factory used to be.
Location: Neuchatel
Link out: http://www.asgip.ch/?id=27&news=90&ag…
Date: 17 Jul 2010
Deadly weekend on region’s roads: high speed chase death, two accidents
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A high-speed chase in the early hours of Sunday led to the shooting death of one of the thieves of three luxury cars, a 20-year-old French man, resident in France. The cars were stolen from a garage in canton Bern, and police there quickly alerted their colleagues in cantons Fribourg and Vaud when the cars were spotted traveling at high speed towards Lausanne. The first two cars pulled over and the thieves abandoned them when they realized they were being chased. The third car stopped near a roadblock in the Sévaz tunnel near Broye.
A Vaud police officer, seeing the car coming at high speed, shot at it, killing the passenger.
Catholic Church leaders in Switzerland say they underestimated the problem
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s Bishops Conference, the highest body in the Catholic church in this country, has publicly apologized for problems of sexual abuse by its clergy, saying it grossly “underestimated the extent of the problem.”
The Conference notes in a statement (pdf) issued Wednesday 31 March, the most public acknowledgment made to date of the problem, that “Diocesan leaders and those in religious orders made mistakes, and we apologize for those mistakes.”
Vancouver, Canada (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s Christoph Kunz won the gold medal Friday 19 March for the Men’s downhill at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, to add to the silver medal the 27-year-old from Bern won earlier in the week for the super-G event. Second place also went to the Swiss, thanks to Michael Brugger, 27, from Fribourg.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), Yahoo France
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A hometown crowd of 6,808 at Les Vernets in Geneva Sunday 3 January watched as the Geneva Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) defeated HC Ambrì-Piotta 6-2 (1-1, 2-1, 3-0).
The Right to Play Foundation will benefit from Tuesday night’s GSHC game against the Fribourg Dragons, which will be broadcast on TSR2. The foundation is supported by 14,000 athletes worldwide who use sports to help improve the lives of some 600,000 children.
Match: Les Vernets, Tuesday 5 January, 20:15, details GSHC
Philippe de Weck (photo: UBS)
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Philippe de Weck, who was the managing director of Swiss bank UBS from 1966-1976 and then head of the board for another four years, has died, age 90, in Fribourg. De Weck was the only head of the bank who has come from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. He remained a member of the board until 1988, after stepping down as chairman in 1980.
De Weck was one of a trio of experts called in to investigate the l’Instituto per le Opere Religiose, the Vatican’s bank, when it was faced with the Banco Ambrosiano scandal in 1982. He also served on the boards of several large Swiss companies, including Nestle and SGS.
He was born into a family that was part of Fribourg’s social set, a strongly Catholic society. His marriage to Alix de Saussure in 194 linked him to one of Geneva’s most notable Protestant families. He studied law in Fribourg and after working briefly in a law firm joined the family bank, Weck, Aeby & Cie, later bought out by Union Bank of Switzerland, which in turn merged with Swiss Bank Corporation to become UBS. The de Weck family is still active in banking today, with several members of the family involved in Geneva banks. Roger de Weck, his son, heads the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
The funeral will be Tuesday 15 December at the St Nicolas Cathedral in Fribourg.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Voters in canton Vaud decide Sunday 27 September if they want to create a single canton-wide police force that combines the existing cantonal police and the various municipal forces. Lausanne’s voters will also decide where to put two new stadiums that the city wants to build.
On the same day in Geneva, voters will decide yet again on smoking in public places, and they will vote on whether or not to lower taxes. Also on the ballot: a change in the annual automobile fee. The city wants to penalize carbon dioxide-emitting passenger cars.
Details:
Minister Doris Leuthard samples chocolates in Broc
Nestle master chocolate maker at work in Broc
Vevey/Broc, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nestlé Monday 7 September opened its CHF25 million Chocolate Centre of Excellence in Broc, in the hills above the company’s home office in Vevey. A slew of dignitaries, including Switzerland’s minister for economic affairs, Doris Leuthard, and top company officials were present to underscore the unit’s importance.
The new centre is a research and production operation for Nestlé’s premium and luxury chocolate segment, but it “will influence the company’s entire chocolate range,” the company noted in its press release for the event.
Nestlé says that of its CHF9.8 billion in chocolate sales in 2008, some 70 percent came from local sales rather than the global brands for which it is well-known, which had sales of CHF1 billion.
Home, sweet (green?) home, Carouge, Geneva
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Homeowners grabbed at the chance to get energy certificates at a bargain rate, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) says, with 15,000 energy certificates sold in only three weeks following the announcement that a certificate and annexed expert report would cost only CHF200 instead of the usual CHF1,200. The cantonal building energy certificate (CECB) establishes the energy efficiency of a building and is useful as a guide to current and future energy use.
Lausanne 2009 - down to Earth and back to the books soon
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canton Bern has decided to coordinate school vacations so they will in future be the same for children in German-speaking and French-speaking communes: this week the German-speakers started back to school and next week the French-speakers return. The decision about school holidays has until now been the perogative of the communes, rather than the canton. The cantonal education minister says the request for change comes from parents, who sometimes have children in more than one commune and who can’t coordinate family vacations.
That still leaves the problem of coordinating two-canton vacations for families with children in Geneva and Vaud, for example, particularly if they have children in private schools, where residence is less of an issue but cantonal public school calendars are sometimes observed.
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two youths, who were 17 when they committed the crime, have been sentenced for sexually abusing two 14-year-old girls in 2008, in a case that was closely followed by Swiss media last year. One has been given a 10-month prison sentence and the other a six-month suspended sentence.
The case made headlines in part because the two were the oldest in a group that included seven others, all minors and about the same age as the victims, as well as three to four other young adults who are still awaiting trial. The ringleaders, one of whom was the target of the affections of one of the girls, are both from Serbia, and the case came to light during a period when the Swiss were considering tightening the law for offenders of other nationalities. They voted in favour of the law. The young man given a firm prison sentence had already had charges dropped in a similar case, but where the girl had consented to sex, but he also had a police record for damaging property and traffic violations.
Switzerland has the highest rate of foreigners in Europe.
