Zurich judge barred from ruling on climate activists

A judge in the Zurich District Court was found to be biased. Keystone/Christian Beutler

A judge at the District Court of Zurich is no longer allowed to rule on climate protection activists. The Federal Court has declared him biased on the grounds that he had shown solidarity with them. 

The judge had acquitted a climate activist of the group “Extinction Rebellion” in September 2022. The trial was triggered by a street blockade erected in Zurich’s city centre. 

At the opening of the judgement, the judge told the defendant not to be intimidated. “Keep up the good work,” he said. He also told her children that they “can be proud of their mum”. 

In its ruling published on Friday, the Federal Court concluded that the judge had shown solidarity with the climate activists. In doing so, he had consciously or unconsciously created the impression that his freedom to form an opinion could be impaired – also in future, similar cases. 

The request to remove the judge from trials against climate activists originated from the Zurich public prosecutor’s office. 

Adapted from German by DeepL/kc/ts

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].