SWISS POLICE DETAIN TWO TURKISH ACTIVISTS IN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL CASE

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
June 30 2007

Winterthur, 30 June: Swiss police on Saturday [30 June] detained
Ali Mercan, representative of Workers’ Party (IP) in Switzerland,
and Ethem Kayali, the Chairman of Kemalist Thought Association (ADD)
in Bern, on charges that they said so-called Armenian genocide is an
"imperialist lie".

Mercan and Kayali were interrogated by Winterthur Prosecutor’s office.

On the other hand, Kemal Albayrak, one of IP’s representatives in
Switzerland, said the meeting was held getting permission from police.

Dogu Perincek, Chairman of IP, was detained in Switzerland on July
24th, 2005 for saying, "Armenian genocide is an imperialist lie"
in a press conference.

He was released after being interrogated for more than three hours.

Perincek was later tried in Swiss court in March 2007 and was fined
to 9,000 francs, but this sentence was delayed for two years.

The Lausanne court also fined Perincek to 3,000 Swiss francs, and
decided to sentence Perincek to 30 days in prison if the Turkish
party leader does not pay this fine immediately.

Perincek was also asked to pay 1,000 Swiss francs to the Armenian
community in Switzerland, and 10,000 francs to Sarkis Sahinyan,
who filed this lawsuit against him.

Perincek, whose appeal was rejected a while ago, filed suit to
federal court.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress