AFRIN-DEMO IN BERN: 50 DEMONSTRATORS ACKNOWLEDGED

The flood of unjustified penalty orders against demonstrators is costing the canton of Bern dearly.

(Michael Bucher, bernerzeitung.ch 27.06.2022)

After more than four years, a rally broken up by the police is costing the canton of Bern dearly. In this regard, the Criminal Chamber of the Bern High Court overturned a large number of penal orders and converted them into acquittals. This is confirmed by the Bernese lawyer Dominic Nellen on request. He knows about 50 people who have now been subsequently acquitted. He represented some of them himself.

Specifically, it is about the Afrin demo on April 7, 2018 in the city of Bern. Kurds and left-wing circles demonstrated that afternoon without permission against the Turkish military offensive in the northern Syrian city of Afrin. During the move, there was occasional spraying on trams and house walls, which is why a large contingent of cantonal police surrounded the demo in Spitalgasse. Despite the police request to leave the rally, 239 people stayed where they were. They were all then taken to the police station. Later it rained around 140 ads for breach of the peace.

chain reaction triggered

Today it is clear: the demo participants were wrongly fined. The trigger was a young woman who had resisted the penalty order and was right by the Bern regional court in autumn 2020. In contrast to the public prosecutor's office, the court denied that the rally at the time had a "peace-threatening mood". In this respect, simply staying at the demo is not enough for a conviction for breach of the peace.

The acquittal made a colleague, who had not taken action against her penalty order, pricked up her ears. She filed an appeal, which was approved by the Supreme Court this March. The judges found that there was an "incompatible contradiction" between the penal decisions of the two women.

However, the leading decision did not result in all penal orders being automatically lifted. Those affected had to submit a request for revision individually – and this within a period of 90 days. Lawyer Dominic Nellen criticized the cumbersome practice towards this newspaper at the time. So that as many convicts as possible find out about the leading decision, the Association of Democratic Lawyers in Bern, for example, invited early to an information event including advice on the attic of the riding school.

After the deadline, according to Nellen, 50 people have now made use of the opportunity to appeal and have been right. The public prosecutor's office must now pay back the fines. The costs of the proceedings are charged to the canton. In addition, the demonstrators will receive compensation of 100 francs because they had to spend several hours in the detention rooms in Neufeld.

"Expensive and cumbersome"

An acquittal results in costs of around 2,000 francs in individual cases, as a judgment that is available to this newspaper shows. The unjustified flood of advertisements therefore costs the canton of Bern around 100,000 francs. "This wave of revisions was expensive and cumbersome for the Bern judiciary," says lawyer Dominic Nellen, "I hope that criminal charges and convictions will be dealt with more cautiously in future demonstrations."