Geneva airport bomb hoaxer must pay massive fine 

Police presence at Geneva airport, photo from 2017 © Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

A French woman behind a false bomb threat at Geneva airport must pay the policing costs of around CHF90,000 ($91,000) related to the incident.

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The Swiss Federal Court External linkthrew out the woman’s appeal against paying the money, which should help cover the cost of the police action during the incident, which dates back to June 2016. 

The 41-year-old woman had phoned the airport with an anonymous security tip. She claimed there was a person with a bomb headed for the French sector of the airport. 

Extra security checks were imposed. Police and other security forces armed with machine guns patrolled the airport. Some access points were blocked, and systematic ID checks were carried out at two open entrances. By the afternoon of the next day, however, authorities announced it was a false alarm. 

The Swiss and French authorities determined that the caller was a woman who was jealous of her husband’s alleged mistress and opened a criminal case against her. She was later sentenced by a French court to six months in prison, three of which were suspended, over the incident.  

The bill for police services had been sent to the woman by the chief of Geneva police. Her appeals process took her from a local Geneva court up to Switzerland’s highest legal instance, which also ruled the appeal inadmissible in a verdict released on FridayExternal link.  

“The plaintiff’s complaint does not involve any violation of constitutional law,” the judges ruled.