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TERRORISM

Swiss jihad suspect arrested on return from Turkey

A suspected jihadist from Geneva was arrested at Zurich airport as he returned from a nine-month trip to Turkey last week, according to reports.

Swiss jihad suspect arrested on return from Turkey
The man had returned to Switzerland from Turkey. Photo: Michael Buholzer/AFP

Confirming the news to paper Le Tribune de Genève, a spokesman for the Swiss public prosecutor’s office said a 29-year-old with dual Swiss-Tunisian nationality was arrested on his return from Turkey on August 9th.

According to the paper, police suspected the practising Muslim had been radicalized.

After he took a plane to Istanbul last October, his mother told the paper she thought the police feared he was travelling on to Syria.

In February the public prosecutor opened a case against him and a 21-year-old friend, who was arrested in June.  

The pair are suspected of breaking the Swiss law which bans terror groups Al-Qaeda and Isis.

They are accused of supporting and participating in criminal organizations, the Swiss public prosecutor’s office told the paper.

“These arrests illustrate the rigorous procedures against anyone in Switzerland suspected of trying to participate in terrorism as part of the jihadist movement,” said the spokesman.

In July a Swiss court made history when it convicted a man for attempting to travel to Syria to join Isis, the first time anyone had been prosecuted for such an act.

The Swiss-Lebanese man was arrested at Zurich airport before getting on a flight to Istanbul in 2015 “with a view to joining Isis and dying as a martyr”, judged the court.

In June the government asked the justice department to draw up a proposal to stop alleged Swiss jihadists travelling overseas to fight, potentially by stripping them of their travel documents.

CRIME

Hoax bomb threats against French airports ‘traced to Swiss email’

Repeated bomb threats against dozens of French airports which led to evacuations and flight cancellations have been 'traced to an email address in Switzerland', according to French authorities.

Hoax bomb threats against French airports 'traced to Swiss email'

More than 70 bomb threats have been made against French airports in the past week, leading to evacuations at dozens of airports and at least 130 flights cancelled.

Most of the alerts were triggered by emails warning of a bomb in the airport – more than 70 such emails have been received by airports around the country such as Toulouse, Bordeaux, Paris Beauvais, Marseille and dozens of smaller airports – including Basel-Mulhouse on the Franco-Swiss border. 

On Sunday French Transport Minister Clément Beaune said that “almost all of the threats have been traced to the same email address, situated in Switzerland”.

He added: “Since Wednesday, it is almost always the same email address that is used, located outside the European Union, in Switzerland”.

He called on hosting sites to help the French authorities, saying: “Everyone has a responsibility, including the platforms and social networks, not to support this kind of attack and to cooperate as quickly as possible with the French civil aviation authorities and our justice system.”

In France, the maximum penalty for making a hoax bomb threat is two years in jail and a €30,000 fine.

As well as airport evacuations and flight disruption, French tourist sites have also been hit with bomb hoaxes – the Palace of Versailles has been evacuated seven times in the past week.

It comes in the context of a tense situation in France as the country raised its terror alert to maximum after an apparent Islamist attack on Friday, October 13th in which a teacher was killed and two others wounded.

Security at large events such as the Rugby World Cup matches has been stepped up. 

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