A 27-year-old Swiss woman has been sentenced to ten years in prison after she killed a 4-year-old girl in a sect-like community in the Zurich highlands ruled with an iron fist by a man who believed he was Jesus.

"/> A 27-year-old Swiss woman has been sentenced to ten years in prison after she killed a 4-year-old girl in a sect-like community in the Zurich highlands ruled with an iron fist by a man who believed he was Jesus.

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Woman gets 10 years in Swiss child torture case

A 27-year-old Swiss woman has been sentenced to ten years in prison after she killed a 4-year-old girl in a sect-like community in the Zurich highlands ruled with an iron fist by a man who believed he was Jesus.

Pfäffikon district court convicted the woman of murder and grievous bodily harm in the verdict on Tuesday, newspaper Zürcher Oberlander reports.

At the time of the incident in 2006, the woman lived in a religious sect in the Zurich Oberland as the girlfriend of the victim’s father, a man referred to in the Swiss media as Hash-Jesus. 

The 44-year old disciplinarian, who thought he was the son of God, was sentenced to nine years and six months imprisonment in 2010 for repeatedly beating his deceased daughter and her older half-sister, who survived the ordeal.

The court found that he had given the girls a sadistic upbringing through the use of a punishment system based on the Old Testament and designed to break the will of the children, who lived in “permanent fear“.

A 62-year old female social worker who lived with couple was also jailed for seven years for her part in the abuse.

The sect leader’s girlfriend admitted to the court that she used all her strength to shake the child in May 2006 in what she described as “an unintentional emotional reaction“ after the girl wet her pants.

The judge said the woman must have known that the brutal treatment of the children was wrong and ought to have “recognised the hunger and bruises“ of the children to whom she was a “virtual mother“.

The court found that she actively supported her boyfriend’s cruel regime as she did not want to lose him. The accused, whose gender was uncertain at birth, was baptized as a boy. She became acquainted with the girls’ father shortly after travelling abroad to undergo a sex change operation.

The state prosecutor had called for a 16-year sentence, but the judge took the woman’s remorse over the death of the almost 5-year-old girl into account. 

Her lawyers had called for two years, arguing she was not as guilty as her accomplices as she was only “part of the system.“

The ex-girlfriend said she has now distanced herself from the teachings of the sect leader.

The court set compensation for personal suffering for the surviving child at 30,000 francs ($33,600) to be paid by the woman and 75,000 ($83,950) to be paid jointly with the girl’s father and the ex-social worker. 

SWISS CITIZENSHIP

Zurich looks to change fees for Swiss citizenship process

Some candidates applying for Swiss citizenship in the city of Zurich will pay less for the procedure, while for others the costs will be higher.

Zurich looks to change fees for Swiss citizenship process

The naturalisation process in Switzerland’s largest city used to cost 1,200 francs for those coming from abroad, and 500 francs for foreigners born in Switzerland.

This week, the municipal council decided, however, to ‘equalise’ the cost: all foreigners, regardless of their place of birth, would pay a flat fee of 750 francs.

People under the age of 25 would apply for free. The fee could also be partially or completely waived for people without financial means to afford this charge.

While various parties quibbled over the new amount — with left-wing parties seeking to drop it to 500 francs — it was ultimately decided that 750 francs would be fair, as it would cover all the administrative costs.

‘Incentive for naturalisation’

During the debate, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) argued against lowering the cost of obtaining citizenship.

“If it doesn’t cost anything, it’s no longer worth anything,” its deputies said.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Social Democrat Maya Kägi Götz pointed out that a lower fee would provide an “incentive for naturalisation.”

This view was shared by a Green councillor, Urs Riklin, who said that making the naturalisation process more ‘affordable’ is good for the city and Switzerland in general.

“Everyone should be able to participate in democracy,” he said.

The final decision on this move will be taken at one of the forthcoming council meetings.

READ ALSO: How much does it cost to become a Swiss citizen?

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