No deportation because of media
Switzerland does not deport a terror suspect because media reports are said to have made him identifiable.
Ali J. is allowed to stay in Switzerland, even though the Federal Intelligence Service classifies him as a threat to Switzerland's security. The media are to blame: they - including "Rundschau" - had made him identifiable to the Iraqi authorities.
This was decided by the Federal Supreme Court. And ignored the fact that the media protected the Iraqi's identity by not mentioning his surname and hiding his face behind bars and pixels. Incidentally, Ali J. supplied the images used himself: The Islamist's videos are freely available online. This is reported by Schweiz am Sonntag in its current edition.
The 24-year-old, dubbed "pharmacist" by the investigators due to his two semesters of pharmacy, is an activist of the Koran distribution campaign "Lies", which has since been banned in Germany.
Ali J. had originally wanted to save himself from deportation by telling a story about the Iranian secret service. However, the story was deemed "unrealistic" by the migration authorities for various reasons. The verdict of the Basel Administrative Court: immediate deportation. Ali J. did not have a profile that would attract the attention of the Iraqi authorities.
Ali J. went to the Federal Supreme Court and argued that the widespread media coverage of his case meant that he really was at risk of torture and death if he was deported because he had been portrayed as a terrorist and jihadist.
With success: the State Secretariat for Migration revised its assessment and stated that the situation had indeed changed as a result of the widespread media coverage and that Ali J. could now be an issue for the Iraqi authorities. And also identifiable thanks to the pictures that had been circulated.
The chances of the Iraqi being allowed to stay in Switzerland for good are rated as "good" by Schweiz am Sonntag. And the chance that he will soon be free again is just as realistic. After all, anyone who cannot be deported and has no sentence to serve will be released in Switzerland even if they are classified as a threat to security. (hae/SaS)
