Geneva University Hospital has filed a complaint with the Federal Court regarding the order to force feed cannabis farmer Bernard Rappaz.
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At a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, the doctor responsible for Rappaz said that his patient was 60 per cent more likely to die if force fed.
The procedure would require him to be restrained and fed with a tube for a few days, which might injure him. Putting Rappaz into a coma could increase the risk of infection, added the doctor.
He declined to give information on Rappaz’s current health status.
Meanwhile, Rappaz’s lawyer has filed a new application asking that his client be granted a pardon from his prison term.
Last week, the parliament of canton Valais decided against giving Rappaz a reprieve.
Rappaz, who is on a hunger strike, was sentenced to five years and eight months behind bars for various offences, including trading in cannabis.
He had to be hospitalised in mid-October as a result of hypoglycemia.
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Cannabis farmer must serve his sentence
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Rappaz, who is on a hunger strike, was sentenced to five years and eight months behind bars for various offences, including trading in cannabis. The cantonal parliament, sitting behind closed doors in Sion on Thursday, decided by 113 votes to 14 against his request. The Rappaz case has received high media attention in Switzerland, in…
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Doctors have refused orders from the authorities to force feed him, turning the case into a modern Greek tragedy, one Swiss newspaper, the Tages-Anzeiger, wrote last week. In the latest twist to the story, on Tuesday the Federal Court rejected Rappaz’ appeal for his imprisonment to be suspended. Across Switzerland, everyone is talking about the…
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Bernard Rappaz is now in Bern’s Insel hospital and doctors have been told by Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten, a member of the Valais government who is responsible for the dossier, to force-feed him to keep him alive. She made the decision after consultation with the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne, which is to consider an appeal by…
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Swiss tobacco production is on the decline; only about 400 farmers still grow this labour-intensive crop. Most of them are in the Broye Valley stretching across cantons Vaud and Fribourg. Their production covers only a small share of the tobacco consumed in Switzerland. (Text and images, Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch)
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