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Swiss-Guatemalan ex-police chief jailed for 15 years

Guatemala's former police chief Erwin Sperisen was slapped with a 15-year prison sentence on Friday after being reconvicted for the deaths of seven inmates in his home country.

Published: 28 April 2018 09:55 CEST

Swiss-Guatemalan ex-police chief jailed for 15 years

Guatemala's former police chief Erwin Sperisen hugs his son after his conviction on Friday. Photo: Harold Cunningham/AFP

Sperisen, who holds dual Swiss and Guatemalan citizenship, had been sentenced to life by a Geneva court in 2014 over his role in the deaths of 10 prisoners.

But the Swiss Federal Tribunal set aside the conviction last year, saying the Geneva court relied on faulty evidence and did not give Sperisen's lawyers sufficient opportunity to confront his accusers.

Prosecutors in the canton of Geneva retried the case this month. The court on Friday found him guilty of complicity in the murders of seven people in Pavon jail in September 2006.

He was however cleared in a separate case involving the alleged summary executions of three prisoners who had escaped from El Infiernito jail in 2005.

Sperisen resigned as Guatemala's police chief in 2007 and moved to Geneva, where his father Eduardo Sperisen-Yurt serves as Guatemala's ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In 2008, several Swiss rights groups acting on behalf of Sperisen's alleged victims began lobbying for his arrest, under rules that allow Swiss citizens to be tried at home for crimes committed abroad.

How free are people to protest in Switzerland?

In its recently released 2024 report, Amnesty International criticised Switzerland for imposing restrictions on the right to protest and for dispersing protests violently.

So what’s the problem?

While not an explicit ban on protest, Amnesty International considers the obligation in some Swiss cantons for protest organisers to gain official approval and shoulder potential costs to be a repressive measure—essentially a ‘workaround’ in cooling dissent.

Amnesty International’s criticism comes on the heels of other concerns.

In 2024, Amnesty International joined with the United Nations in criticizing moves by some Swiss cantons and cities to ban protests regarding the Middle East conflict as ‘disproportionate’.

Read More: How ordinary citizens can try to change the law in Switzerland

The organization has also highlighted the continued use of rubber bullets by Swiss police in dispersing protests as a serious area of concern.

Furthermore, any changes to protests are controlled or permitted in Switzerland must be made through individual cantons due to the country’s devolution of specific powers – a process that could take years.

So what restrictions have been introduced in Switzerland?

In early March, the ‘Anti-Chaoten’ initiative put forward by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) youth wing, which would have placed significant legal and financial burdens on protesters, was rejected in a Zurich cantonal referendum. However, a counterproposal by cantonal authorities was accepted at the polls.

The successful counterproposal requires explicit permission from authorities to hold a protest or rally, as well as passing on the cost of the police operation, as well as any intentional damage, to protest organizers. Failure to gain approval for protests can result in charges being laid.

Following the success of the Zurich measure, the Basel SVP intends to introduce a similar proposal to be voted on in August – with the same likely result.

Which protests have been dispersed violently in Switzerland?

Due to global events, protests have become increasingly common in Switzerland over the last five years. Most have been peaceful, but there have been exceptions.

Measures introduced to limit the spread of the coronavirus between 2020 and 2022 led to violent protests being dispersed in Bern, Zurich and Lucerne.

Read More: Switzerland to impose tougher penalties for violent protesters

Climate change protests have also been violently dispersed by police, using pepper spray and rubber bullets – such as in Basel in February 2023.

Amnesty International has also raised serious concerns regarding the police dispersal of an International Women’s Day protest in Basel on March 17th of this year, in which rubber bullets were also used.

Most recently, opponents of the Eritrean regime were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons at a demonstration in Gerlafingen, Aargau, on March 31st.

What right do the Swiss have to protest?

The right to peaceful protest is enshrined in the Swiss federal constitution—Article 16 provides for freedom of expression, while Article 23 protects the right to free association.

Indeed, in 2020, the country successfully introduced a resolution to the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling for world governments to protect the right to protest and not use the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to curtail freedoms.

Read More: What foreigners should know about the Swiss constitution

Furthermore, the country is a signatory to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, which could have some bearing on how protests are dispersed.

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