Islam versus Europe

In Britain, complaints about judicial madness tend to focus on the EU or the Human Rights Act. But the example of Switzerland shows that the problem is broader than that. Switzerland is not a member of the EU and there is no Human Rights Act there. But Europe's baneful bureaucracy is still able to challenge and warp Swiss democracy.

The today 31-year-old Turk came to Switzerland with his parents in 1986, where the family settled in the Neuenburg canton.

From 1994 on he was regularly in conflict with the law. By 2002 several convictions followed for wounding, robbery, fraud and road traffic offences.

For this he was sentenced to a total of 13 and a half months in prison. After his conditional release in April 2003 the Neuenburg immigration authority ordered his permanent expulsion from the country, which was confirmed by the Federal Court in 2004.

In 2008 the ECHR came to a conclusion on the man's first complaint: Switzerland had infringed his right to consideration of his private and family life. Switzerland was sentenced to pay him 3000 euros in amends and 4650 euros in expenses.

The Federal Court then reconsidered its first judgement and changed the permanent expulsion to exclusion from the country for 10 years, valid from 2003. The ECHR has now again found in favour of the Turk who is now living in Germany.

For this second infringement of the right to consideration for private and family life Switzerland must now pay another 5000 euros in amends. According to the judges in Strasbourg, in the specific case exclusion from the country for 10 years appears disproportionate.

In this it must be taken into account that the delinquency of the person concerned related to youthful misdeeds and he now shows understanding. Since then he had proved to be a responsible person and who is working regularly and has started his own family.

Source: Tagesanzeiger

Political opponents are also invoking the EU to claim the Swiss People's Party's (SVP) plan to deport criminal immigrants would be unworkable. The SVP already won a referendum it called on this question then the government simply refused to implement it! It has now called a second referendum that will be even more explicit.

A legal study commissioned by Switzerland's liberal FDP has found that the country risks a destabilizing confrontation with the EU if it approves a Swiss People’s Party (SVP) proposal to deport foreign criminals.

Conducted by the University of Freiburg, the research leaves no room for doubt: the SVP’s initiative would land Switzerland in hot water with the EU. Any breach of the principle of freedom of movement for EU citizens would cause Brussels to enact a ‘guillotine clause’, effectively cancelling Switzerland's bilateral agreements with the union.

"Those bilateral agreements have brought us prosperity and a lot of jobs while allowing us to keep our independence,” said Free Democratic Party (FDP) president Fulvio Pelli on Monday during the presentation of the study in Bern. The FDP strongly opposes the initiative, which calls for the automatic deportation of foreign nationals found guilty of a crime in Switzerland.

If passed, the new law would infringe some of the EU’s basic principles, such as discrimination based on nationality, argued Julia Hänni, the law professor who led the study.

According to the FDP, any such law would be viewed as a hostile move by the EU, which could take advantage of the situation by pushing Switzerland on other sensitive issues, such as bank confidentiality or the automatic adoption of European law.

Source: The Local