Swiss court finds Turkish politician guilty of racism for denying Armenian genocide
March 9th, 2007 by
International Herald Tribune
A prominent Turkish politician was found guilty Friday of breaching Swiss anti-racism laws by saying that the early 20th century killing of Armenians could not be described as genocide.
Dogu Perincek, leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party, was ordered by a Swiss court to pay a fine of 3,000 Swiss francs (US$2,450; €1,870) and was given a suspended penalty of 9,000 francs (US$7,360; €5,600).
Perincek was charged with breaking Swiss law by denying during a visit to Switzerland in 2005 that the World War I-era killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians amounted to genocide. He has since repeated his claim, including at his trial earlier this week.
Perincek accused the judge of “racist hatred” toward Turkey and said he would appeal the verdict to Switzerland’s supreme court.
If necessary, Perincek told Turkey’s government-run Anatolia news agency, he would take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. [Read More]
This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.