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Mother cleared of killing tot with hard drugs

A 25-year-old woman accused of causing the death of her baby girl by injecting cocaine and heroin into a milk bottle was acquitted by a Saint Gallen district court for lack of evidence.

Published: 5 November 2012 22:28 CET
Mother cleared of killing tot with hard drugs
File photo: Psychonaut

The court verdict came on Monday after the prosecution alleged the woman added the lethal drug cocktail to the bottle before feeding her child.

The seven-month-old infant died in a Saint Gallen hospital on May 9th 2009.

A blood test showed that she had three times the lethal dose of drugs for an adult in her body.

The case has attracted national media interest.

The woman declared her innocence, telling the court: “She was my little girl — my flesh and blood,” according to an account of the case by Blick.ch.

“It was not intentional.”

She said her former boyfriend had hidden the drugs in her kitchen cupboard where the baby food was kept, suggesting the drugs had accidentally become mixed up with the milk, Blick.ch reported.

The prosecutor argued that the 25-year-old was motivated to kill the child because the girl stood in the way of her relationship with her ex-boyfriend with whom she was “infatuated”.

He added that a possible additional motive was a bid to quieten the baby so the woman could have a quiet night with her boyfriend.

The woman’s defence lawyer argued that nobody knew what happened, Blick.ch said.

The court judgment found that “most likely the drugs were added by an act of the mother”.

However, it added that the lack of evidence “allows for only an acquittal”.

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CRIME

‘Your permit is invalid’: Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

Scores of foreign residents have received an email recently telling them their residency rights in Switzerland have been revoked.

Published: 26 April 2024 11:17 CEST
Updated: 2 May 2024 15:04 CEST
'Your permit is invalid': Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

A number of foreign nationals, especially in the German-speaking part of the country, have received an official-looking letter, purportedly from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) informing them that the Free Movement of People agreement between Switzerland and the EU has been nullified, and therefore “your residence permit is no longer valid.”

Faced with enquiries from concerned recipients, SEM responded that the letter is fake, advising recipients to ignore it and, above all, not to click on the QR code on the top.

“Fake letters from the SEM have been circulating since the beginning of this week,” the immigration authority said on its website as well as on X (formerly Twitter).  

“The letter has no impact on the recipient’s  residence status,” SEM added.

Fake jobs, real threats

However, this is only the latest scam perpetrated in the name of SEM.

There have been others in the past.

For instance, many foreigners have also received emails from addresses swissimmigration@consultant or eu_immigration@consultant, that pretend to be the Swiss immigration authority.

“In most cases, a fictitious job in the hotel industry is offered, with the senders demanding payment of 300 to 1,000 euros for a permit in Switzerland and for health and accident insurance,” SEM reported.

The first clue that this email doesn’t come from  SEM, which is part of Switzerland’s government, is that it is asking for payment in euros. If the scammers were smarter, they’d demand Swiss francs.

“These e-mails do not come from the SEM and should be considered as an attempt at fraud,” the agency said. 

Extortion attempt

And a few years ago, a number of foreigners received emails coming allegedly from SEM, Swiss border control authorities, or even the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).

They threatened to revoke the victim’s residence permit or even expel them from the country altogether if they didn’t pay a certain sum of money into an anonymous account.

Needless to say, no government authority would ever resort to blackmail or demand payment for such ‘services’.

So a good rule to remember (for foreigners and Swiss alike) is that if threats and pressure are involved, letters / emails / phone calls ( WhatsUp messages are more than likely scams.
 
READ ALSO: The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of 

Don’t respond

SEM as well as police urge everyone contacted by scammers, by whatever means to:

  • Ignore these messages by hanging up the phone and / or deleting emails, moving them to the Spam folder
  • Never give out your credit card number or bank account information to people you don’t know
  • If you did give your card number, contact your credit card company immediately to have the card blocked. Likewise, if you gave out your banking details, get in touch with your bank.
  • In the event of threats of extortion attempts, consider filing a criminal complaint. You can search for police stations in your area on the Police website. 
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