Fully, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 21-year-old driver injured two other young people, ages 17 and 20, hitting them when they were using a crosswalk after leaving a bus in the centre of Fully. The two were taken to the hospital in Sion, say police.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A late night accident on the lake road near Geneva, a young driver with too much alcohol in his system, the driver of the other car in serious condition: accidents of this sort happen often enough that they rarely make the front page of Swiss newspapers.
Add in a Lamborghini, other flashy cars, rich children of Russian commercial celebrities and a story with international headlines surfaces. Stir in local political squabbles plus what looks to some people like rich foreigners fleeing the country in the face of Swiss justice, and a continuing headliner of wealth, incompetence and scandal is born.
Geneva media, police, lawyers exchange barbs
An accident which took place 19 November in Genthod, between Geneva and Versoix, has not only made headlines, it is putting Geneva police, authorities and Swiss media in the hot seat. Wednesday 25 November Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zappelli, said he had received a police file on the case, nearly a week after the accident and the day after he complained that he had received nothing. He has now officially opened a criminal investigation.
The media say police and officials reacted too slowly but the lawyer for the accused, a Geneva police spokesperson who talked to GenevaLunch and officials have expressed dismay at local media for hyping an event without facts. Jacques Barrillon, who represents the 22-year-old driver of the Lamborghini, told Russian journalists that “The story is being inflated in every possible way, just because it features nice, expensive cars, millionaire parents and foreign passports.”
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.
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A court in Fribourg 17 March sentenced six youths for their part in a gang rape case that is one of a series of crimes in three locations over several months. The crimes include assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, theft and refusing to come to the aid of an injured person, a handicapped man.
