Switzerland’s highest court has rejected an appeal by 12 climate activists who staged a tennis stunt at Credit Suisse, upholding their conviction for trespassing.
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The Federal Court dismissed their argument that they had taken emergency action because of the “imminent danger” of global warming.
“At the moment of the action, there was no current and immediate danger in the sense of the criminal emergency regulation,” it said in a statement on Friday.
In November 2018, the activists staged a protest at Credit Suisse in the western Swiss city of Lausanne. Some of them dressed in tennis whites and simulated tennis matches inside its premises. They wanted Swiss tennis star Roger Federer to drop his sponsorship deal with the bank because of its fossil fuels investments.
In a surprise initial ruling last year, a local court acquitted them on grounds that “imminent danger” of global warming had driven their actions. But that was overturned by an appeals court, whose decision has now been confirmed.
“The Federal Court is on the wrong side of history,” defence lawyers said in a statement. They said the activists will take now their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
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A district court in Lausanne acquitted the activists, many of them students, on Monday. They were on trial after refusing to pay a fine of CHF21,600 ($22,254) for trespassing. Video footage from 2018 shows students dressed in tennis whites playing matches inside Credit Suisse branches. They wanted Swiss tennis star Roger Federer to drop his sponsorship deal with the bank because…
Climate activists on trial over Credit Suisse tennis stunt
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The stunt was staged by young activists, many of them students, inside Credit Suisse branches in Geneva and Lausanne in November 2018. They were fined CHF21,600 ($22,254) for trespassing. Their lawyers are contesting the fine saying that the activists were acting as whistleblowers for the climate emergency. The trial over the unpaid fines opened on Tuesday at a district court in Lausanne and a…
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