Citizenship applicants “must disclose crimes”
Candidates for naturalisation must disclose any criminal records if the authorities are unaware of the information, the Federal Court has ruled.
The court upheld the withdrawal of Swiss citizenship from a Somali man who had failed to mention in his naturalisation application robberies he committed as a juvenile.
The municipal authorities in Zurich granted Swiss nationality to the man, now aged 22, in 2004. However, investigation revealed that he had committed several offences since 2002, including nine robberies.
The Somali’s naturalisation was withdrawn in 2007, a decision confirmed by Zurich’s administrative court.
The Federal Court has now backed the Zurich judgement, noting that the man should have given the authorities all the facts about his previous convictions.
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