Genocide denial case will be re-examined
The European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber will re-examine the case of a Turkish politician who made comments in Switzerland denying the 1915 Armenian genocide. The Swiss had appealed a previous decision stating that their law against genocide denial violated freedom of expression.
Dogu Perinçek, the head of the left-wing Turkish Workers’ Party, was accused by the Swiss of racial discrimination after he called the genocide “an international lie” during a public speech in the city of Lausanne in July 2005.
Under the Swiss penal code any act of denying, belittling or justifying genocide is a violation of the country’s anti-racism legislation.
In December 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Swiss law on genocide denial violated the principle of freedom of expression.
Armenians maintain the mass killings in 1915 were genocide, a charge Turkey disputes.
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