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INTERNATIONAL CALL TO SUPPORT BERNARD RAPPAZ'S RELEASE
Author
- Comité de soutien à B. Rappaz
Date Created
- 28 May 2010
Date Edited
- 28 May 2010 12:40:39 PM
License
This work is in the public domain.
Swiss hemp activist Bernard Rappaz was sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison after a biased trial, which included the spectacle of the prosecution hurling accusations ranging from violations of federal anti-narcotic laws and money laundering to traffic violations. After a 50-day hunger strike to obtain a federal review of his trial, Rappaz was released and put under house arrest, and then re-incarcerated. He has restarted his hunger strike. Further demonstrating the fact that Rappaz has been unfairly targeted, his business partner only received a prison sentence, which was then reduced to parole, and a small fine. Have the Swiss authorities sentenced Rappaz to death ?
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After long negotiations with the Swiss authorities, Bernard Rappaz must serve a prison term of 5 years and 8 month for the cultivation and trade of hemp for therapeutic purposes, textile, etc.
Unfair trial and investigation, disproportionate sentencing (his business partner received less punishment) outrageous and fallacious charges (accused of money laundering) for a hemp activist, (like Marc Emery), and this, although he always wanted to respect the laws of his country and of the swiss districts (cantons).
He is a scapegoat, a targeted man.
Long committed to nonviolence, Rappaz has begun a hunger strike to express his dissent and demand a review of his case (to which Swiss authorities took a long time to respond.) He is doing this at age 57.
After fifty days, he had to be hospitalized and was subsequently granted 2-week probation during which he was able to recover some of his strength, but not all of the energy that he had spent in his conflict with authorities.
These same authorities, who did not respect the two-week probation and who have sent him back to continue his sentence, while fully aware that he would restart his hunger strike, have hypocritically called for him to eat in an attempt to wash their hands of the situation.
Reporting on this affair has been stifled by the many unscrupulous lobbies which pressure the state and the press to keep quiet about the case.
INTERNATIONAL CALL TO SUPPORT BERNARD RAPPAZ'S RELEASE
Unfair trial and investigation, disproportionate sentencing (his business partner received less punishment) outrageous and fallacious charges (accused of money laundering) for a hemp activist, (like Marc Emery), and this, although he always wanted to respect the laws of his country and of the swiss districts (cantons).
He is a scapegoat, a targeted man.
Long committed to nonviolence, Rappaz has begun a hunger strike to express his dissent and demand a review of his case (to which Swiss authorities took a long time to respond.) He is doing this at age 57.
After fifty days, he had to be hospitalized and was subsequently granted 2-week probation during which he was able to recover some of his strength, but not all of the energy that he had spent in his conflict with authorities.
These same authorities, who did not respect the two-week probation and who have sent him back to continue his sentence, while fully aware that he would restart his hunger strike, have hypocritically called for him to eat in an attempt to wash their hands of the situation.
Reporting on this affair has been stifled by the many unscrupulous lobbies which pressure the state and the press to keep quiet about the case.
INTERNATIONAL CALL TO SUPPORT BERNARD RAPPAZ'S RELEASE
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