SVP poster destroyer Halil Sütlü sentenced

 
Former CVP functionary Halil Sütlü must pay a fine of 1,200 Swiss francs for tearing down six election posters of SVP National Council candidate Andreas Glarner from Aargau during the 2007 National Council election campaign. This was decided by the district court of Aarau. The posters showed a woman wearing a burka and the slogan "Aarau or Ankara?" and a minaret with the slogan "Baden or Baghdad?" respectively. Sütlü, a management consultant of Turkish origin, told the free newspaper News on Thursday that he had "only resisted because the rule of law did not work". The judiciary had dealt with Glarner's controversial Muslim posters, but did not consider the anti-racism penal norm to have been violated. Commenting on the court ruling, Sütlü said that he had been made an example of. He was shocked that he and not Glarner had been punished.
SVP candidate Andreas Glarner had offered Halil Sütlü a settlement following his complaint: If he made a donation of 500 francs to a charitable organization and apologized, he would withdraw the complaint. Sütlü refused. "Glarner is a man without virtue. If anything, he should apologize."
Glarner hopes that the ruling will send a signal. "What the CVP's model Muslim has done is simply unacceptable," Glarner told News. Sütlü, on the other hand, would do it again: "Nobody plays with my dignity and that of my children."