Climate activists convicted
Twelve climate activists were rightly convicted of
trespassing for their 2018 occupation of a bank branch in Lausanne. They could
not claim to have acted in a state of necessity because the requirement of an
"imminent danger" was not met. In its decision, the Federal Supreme
Court did not have to assess the scientific findings on global warming.
BGE 147 IV 297
Restrictions on rallies
According to the Federal Supreme Court, the temporary restriction of the
number of participants in rallies to 15 in the canton of Bern due to the
coronavirus constituted a disproportionate encroachment on the freedom of
assembly. A rally loses its significance with only 15 participants. In
contrast, the temporary restriction of the number of participants to 300 was
permissible in the canton of Uri.
Judgments 2C_308/2021, 2C_290/2021
Imprescriptible offence
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland is called to investigate the murder of an Iranian opposition activist in 1990 in Coppet (VD) – purportedly executed by the Iranian secret service – under the aspects of "genocide" and "felonies against humanity". According to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court's Lower Appeals Chamber the provision adopted in 2011 determining the exclusion from limitation for these offences in this case is applicable retroactively.
Decree BB.2021.141
Revocation of Swiss citizenship
The Federal Administrative Court
was called upon to consider, for the first time, the revocation of Swiss
citizenship. A Turkish-Swiss dual national had organised various actions on
behalf of an Islamist terror group. In so doing, he significantly harmed
Switzerland’s internal and external security. The Court therefore confirmed the
decision of the State Secretariat for Migration to revoke the Swiss citizenship
of the person concerned.
Judgment F-5427/2019
Public
Clouds
In a
public invitation to tender, the Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics
awarded the contracts for the supply of Public
Cloud services to five selected tenderers. Google was not awarded any contract
and filed an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court. In its appeal,
Google asked inter alia that the signing of any contracts be disallowed
pending the final decision of the Court. The Court rejected this appeal in an
interim decision.
Case
B-3238/2021
No
patent infringement in Blockchain
The
action filed by the licensee of an invention for the speediest data supply in
decentralised networked computers failed before the Federal Patent Court. The
licensee had argued that transactions initiated by the defendant through its
app "Friendz" on what is known as the Ethereum blockchain infringed
the patent. The Court concluded that the patent requires the shifting of data,
which the Ethereum technology does not do.
Judgment 02019_004