SVP cadres fight for acquittal before Bern High Court
Almost five years after its publication, the SVP's "slasher ad" is still occupying the Bernese judiciary. Since Tuesday, the cantonal high court has been reviewing the guilty verdict of the lower court.
SVP General Secretary Martin Baltisser and his deputy Silvia Bär will not stand for the accusation of racial discrimination. The Bern-Mittelland regional court sentenced them to conditional fines. Baltisser's lawyer and the representative of the two Kosovan private plaintiffs presented their side of the story for almost five hours on Tuesday. At the end, Baltisser and Bär reiterated that they had "never had any racist feelings in their lives".
The High Court was obviously surprised by the length of the parties' submissions. Contrary to the original plans, the verdict will not be announced until next Tuesday (March 15).
The legal dispute revolves around a newspaper advertisement from 2011 with the title "Kosovars slash Swiss". An average reader could take this to mean that Kosovars are all criminals, the court of first instance ruled. Such an assertion violates human dignity.
"Ambiguous"
Viewed in isolation, it is an ambiguous formulation, admitted Baltisser's lawyer Thomas Wirz before the High Court. However, the title and text of the advertisement must be perceived as a unit.
It was clear from the text that it was about a specific case - the attack on a Swiss man in Interlaken. This is also shown by the undisputed French-language version of the advertisement. There the title was "Des Kosovars poignardent un Suisse".
"Nationwide outrage"
The public prosecutor's office is not taking part in the proceedings before the High Court. David Gibor, the representative of the two private plaintiffs, is calling for the judgment of the court of first instance to be confirmed. It was no coincidence that the advertisement caused "nationwide outrage" in 2011.
Gibor claimed that this was an attack on human dignity. A constitutionally protected fundamental right was affected. The defendants could therefore not invoke freedom of expression. The SVP had engaged in propaganda at the expense of an ethnic minority, said Gibor. Baltisser and Bär had deliberately chosen the wording: "They are communication professionals and knew exactly what they were doing."
In the violent incident in Interlaken, a Swiss wrestler was injured with a knife by a man from Kosovo. The police subsequently arrested two Kosovars. One was released after a short time, the other was later convicted of attempted intentional homicide. (SDA)
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