Car drives through Swiss pro-Palestine demo

Investigation opened after drive through Lausanne pro-Palestine demonstration Keystone-SDA

Swiss prosecutors have launched an investigation after a car drove through a crowd of people at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Lausanne, leaving two people slightly injured.

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The public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the driver on suspicion of endangering life.

A media spokesperson for the Lausanne city police told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Sunday, the 56-year-old man, who lives in Lausanne, is currently available to answer questions from investigators. He will later be questioned by the public prosecutor’s office.

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The man was stopped by the police on Sunday night. This was shortly after he had made his way through the participants of a pro-Palestine demonstration in his sports car.

Overtook other vehicles

Further details of the incident, which took place on or near the Chauderon Bridge in the centre of Lausanne, emerged over the course of Sunday. There, some of the 1,500 to 2,000 participants in the pro-Palestine demonstration stopped traffic by sitting down on the road.

Numerous cars stopped, as did two public transport buses. As a video obtained by the Keystone-SDA news agency shows, the 56-year-old man from Lausanne overtook the motorcade in his sports car. When he reached the demonstrators, he slowed down and then made his way through the crowd.

Lausanne city police wrote in a statement on Sunday night that the man had disregarded police stop signals before driving across the bridge. The crowd reacted vehemently to the car and tried to stop it. The vehicle was damaged in the process. Many people were shocked.

The two slightly injured people did not require medical treatment. The demonstration was calm.

Accusation can still change

According to the Swiss Criminal Code, anyone who unscrupulously puts a person’s life in immediate danger is liable to a custodial sentence of up to five years or a monetary penalty. This is Article 129 of the Swiss Criminal Code, entitled “Endangering life”.

The media spokesperson for the Lausanne police said that the charges against the man could change in the course of the investigation.

Translated from German with DeepL/mga

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