Three young people arrested in French-speaking Switzerland for extremism
Published: Friday, Mar 15th 2024, 11:50
Updated At: Friday, Mar 15th 2024, 19:01
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In a joint operation, the police in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva have arrested three young people on suspicion of having links to extremist and radicalized circles. In Vaud, the detainee was a 15-year-old Russian. They are in custody.
The underage Russian was identified following a police investigation coordinated by the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol), as the Vaud authorities announced on Friday. This was mainly in connection with exchanges on social networks.
Fedpol had received a tip-off from abroad, a spokeswoman told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The Russian was taken into custody under the supervision of the president of the juvenile court. Criminal proceedings have been initiated against him.
Type of extremism unknown
The investigation was entrusted to the security police of the canton of Vaud. They will continue in order to establish the exact extent of the Russian's criminal activity and possible links to other cases in Switzerland and abroad, it was added.
In Geneva, two minors were arrested at the beginning of March in connection with activities in radical networks. The Geneva authorities did not want to reveal more.
The law enforcement authorities also did not want to specify what kind of extremism the activities of the three arrested young people were.
Knife attack on Jews
On March 2, a knife attack by a teenage extremist on an orthodox Jew in Zurich caused nationwide horror. The 15-year-old inflicted life-threatening injuries on the man. The victim is now out of danger.
The teenager is in custody. In a video in Arabic, the Swiss national with a Tunisian background had called for a "worldwide fight against Jews" and expressed solidarity with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist network. He was not known to the Federal Intelligence Service or the police before the crime.
Political and religious circles strongly condemned the attack. Security measures for Jewish institutions have been tightened. Anti-Semitic incidents have become more frequent in Switzerland since the attack by the Islamist Hamas in Israel on October 7 and the start of the Gaza war.
©Keystone/SDA
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