Police defend WEF demonstration actions

Graubünden cantonal police have responded to an article in Britain’s Guardian newspaper about a journalist’s experience during post-demonstration police controls.

The newspaper’s Andrew Clark said he was pulled off a train heading out of Davos and his hands bound behind his back. He was then made to wait while searches and identity checks were made. The entire affair lasted three hours, he reported.

Cantonal police spokesman Thomas Hobi confirmed that police had stopped a train, searched protesters and checked identities on Saturday afternoon. This was because a small demonstration on the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos had turned violent, he said.

“Because we wanted to clarify the damage caused, we stopped the train and took people to [another town] Landquart to take down their details,” he told swissinfo.ch.

                                  

He said that the checks were carried out in a normal fashion and that binding hands was a normal action carried out for police protection when there was a large group.

Clark reported that he had been asked to delete photos by police. Hobi said that officers had first asked him to do that for “data protection and privacy reasons” but that it was realised very quickly that “we had no legal basis and could not request this”.