Swiss Federal Court: No jail-time for terror group affiliate

In this June 2014 archive photo, demonstrators chant slogans to support al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as the Islamic State group or ISIS) in Mosul, Iraq. Keystone / Uncredited

Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court has ruled that an Iraqi convicted only of association with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State groups will not be imprisoned. The decision came in response to an appeal by the attorney general.

In July 2021, the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona had sentenced on appeal the 50-year-old Iraqi national to 65 months in prison and deportation. The court had found him guilty of membership in the two terrorist groups and possession of violent images. A year earlier, the man had been convicted of participation in a criminal organisation and was sentenced to 70 months.

The Office of the Attorney General, which had requested jail-time on both occasions, appealed against the verdict of the Court of Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court. In a ruling published on Thursday, the judges at the country’s highest court in Lausanne rejected the arguments of the prosecution and confirmed the position of their colleagues in Bellinzona.

The top court notes that imprisonment is warranted when the offence is in the catalog of Article 64 of the Criminal Code or is punishable by a custodial sentence of at least five years. The law banning terror groups such as al-Qaeda and IS does not provide for this.

In order to be able to jail a person who has returned to Switzerland after travelling to Iraq or Syria —  the two countries where the IS group established its so-called caliphate before being routed by a US-led international coalition  —   it must be proven that he or she has committed serious crimes such as murder or rape.

The law banning al-Qaeda and other terror groups is intended to protect public security, the Federal Supreme Court ruling said. It punishes behavior that precedes the commission of crimes.