Sperisen’s lawyers again criticize a judge as biased
Published: Monday, Dec 18th 2023, 19:01
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Erwin Sperisen is to be tried for a fourth time in Geneva. However, the lawyers of the former head of the Guatemalan National Police do not want to accept the judge who has taken over the case.
According to the lawyers, the judge Gaëlle Van Hove, who is to preside over this fourth trial, is too close to the first public prosecutor Yves Bertossa. He investigated the case and will represent the prosecution.
In the run-up to the trial on Monday, the lawyers also accused Judge Van Hove of being a member of the Green Party. This party had submitted an interpellation to the National Council in 2007 entitled "Human rights violations in Guatemala by a Swiss dual citizen", which was directed against Sperisen.
Sperisen's lawyers want their request for the recusal of Judge Van Hove to be dealt with by extraordinary substitute judges. These are to be appointed by the Geneva Grand Council "in application of the Geneva Judicial Organization Act".
Last October, Sperisen was released from prison in Witzwil BE, where he was serving a 15-year sentence for accessory to murder. The Federal Supreme Court overturned his conviction following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in June 2023.
Bias already established once
The ECtHR was of the opinion that the President of the Geneva Court had created the appearance of bias before the trial in April 2018 that led to Sperisen's conviction.
"I hope that everything that happened to me will open the eyes of the people of Geneva," Sperisen told the media on Monday. In his opinion, the problems he had with the Geneva justice system could also affect other people. He complained that the presumption of innocence had not been respected in his case.
The former police chief of Guatemala is accused by the public prosecutor's office in Geneva of being involved in the murder of seven prisoners during the storming of a prison in Guatemala in 2006.
The 53-year-old Sperisen now has to stand trial for a fourth time on the charges. In the first two trials, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. At his third trial before a Geneva court, he was only accused of being an accessory to murder. Erwin Sperisen has already spent more than eleven years in prison.
©Keystone/SDA
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