BERN, SWITZERLAND – The news comes as something of an anti-climax after 8 years in the making: the two Tinner brothers and their 74-year-old father are being charged with breaking Swiss arms export laws. They were part of an operation run by Pakistani Abdul Qadeer Khan, who supplied nuclear parts and secrets to a network that included Libya. Libya’s nuclear plans were revealed when the Tinner case came to light in 2003, and, largely as a result, Libya was forced to abandon its programme.
The family of engineers has agreed to a deal, according to the Swiss public prosecutor’s office, whereby they will serve a maximum of five years, but details of the arrangements will remain secret.
One of the open questions linked to the case is whether the family cooperated with the CIA.
Background, GenevaLunch, “The political tug of war over the Tinner’s nuclear plans drags on”, 2009
St Gallen, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A driver caught speeding at 137km per hour in an 80km zone in St Gallen has been sentenced to pay a CHF300,000 fine, calculated as a 130-day fine at CHF2,300 a day. The daily rate is based on his income. Half must be paid up front, and the other half is linked to good behaviour during a two-year suspended sentence.
Swiss voters in 2002 approved a system that went into effect in 2007, which replaces prison terms for certain crimes, such as speeding, with “day fines” based on income. The system has come under fire for not being sufficiently dissuasive, particularly where suspended sentences are used.
HSBC victim of data theft
Update 21:15 (last paragraph) Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The French authorities have responded favourably to Switzerland’s demand to return the data stolen by a former employee of HSBC Private Bank in Geneva, reportedly amounting to 130,000 client names. French Ministry of Justice officials confirmed that the stolen laptop was to be returned “very quickly”.
The encrypted client data, taken from the bank by former IT employee Hervé Falciani, was turned over to the French public prosecutor’s office in Nice, where investigations were opened into French clients of the bank suspected of money-laundering. Switzerland had asked the French authorities for judicial assistance earlier this year when Falciani was found to have stolen the data and moved to France. As part of the cross-border cooperation, Swiss authorities supplied the French with the means to decipher the data on the laptop.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The French public prosecutor in Nice, southern France, Eric de Montgolfier, has revealed that his office is in possession of confidential details of up to 130,000 clients from HSBC’s private banking branch in Geneva. The data was acquired by the French state when Hervé Falciani, a former IT employee of the bank, left HSBC with the details stored on his laptop. Journal de Dimanche reports that 3,000 of the bank’s clients are French citizens.
The whistleblower, who is reported to have received a new identity and is said to be in hiding in fear of his life, told French public television that he acted out of idealism: “Either you bury your head in the sand or you try to do something about it.”
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.
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