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Call for better tabs on released offenders

Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says she favours moves to keep a closer watch on dangerous offenders once they have been released back into society.

In a newspaper interview on Saturday, Widmer-Schlumpf said probation officers must spend more time with each felon.

However, the justice minister said she was opposed to calls for each offender to undergo a risk assessment before being released.

Not every offender poses a risk to society, she told the Bund and Tages-Anzeiger newspapers.

A 16-year-old au pair was murdered earlier this month by a young man who had been released from a rehabilitation centre. He served time there for attempting to kill another woman in 2003.

There has been public anger at why a man who was known to be dangerous under the influence of drugs and alcohol was free to commit such a crime.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR