On 15 June last year, I attended an anti-Putin rally in Geneva. The protest was officially cleared by the Swiss authorities. The next day, on June 16 that was the day of the meeting between the U.S. and the Russian presidents – I got caught in an unpleasant situation. I was walking around Geneva and admiring the sights of the city; I was wearing a T-shirt with a portrait of Putin with the inscription “Hands off Uzbekistan”.
During that day, the Swiss Federal Police detained me twice – just because I was wearing this T-shirt. They demanded that I take off the T-shirt, which I refused to do. In total I was held for 5 hours in a concrete cell at the police station (Story details).
My colleagues helped to hire a lawyer from Geneva, they paid for her services, and she helped to draw up a complaint addressed to the prosecutor of Geneva Mr Olivier Jornot. According to the lawyer, by detaining me illegally, the federal police officers violated 4 articles of the Swiss Criminal Code.
On 12 October 2021, I sent a Complaint by registered mail to Mr Olivier Jornot, Public Prosecutor of Geneva.
As I am not fluent in English and French, I asked my Swiss colleagues to get in touch with the prosecutor’s office from time to time, in order to find out the status of my case. The first time they contacted the Prosecutor’s Office was on 22 October 2021: they called the following number +41223276463 and were told that my complaint had been received and that it was being processed.
My colleagues called the same landline (+41223276463) for the second time on November 18, 2021. The answer they got was as follows: the prosecutor’s office had opened a case and the complaining party (me) would be contacted in due time.
The next time colleagues tried to contact the prosecutor’s office was on 21 January 2022, but they could not reach the number.
I was very worried at that time and wanted to find out the status of my Complaint. On February 11, 2022, I sent a registered letter addressed to Mr Olivier Jornot, Public Prosecutor of Geneva, requesting that the Prosecutor’s office informs me of the status of the proceedings at their earliest convenience.
However, until today, I have not received any information from the Prosecutor’s office in Geneva about the fate of my Complaint. A couple of months ago, my lawyer wrote another letter of inquiries to the Prosecutor General Mr Jornot, but there’s been no reply so far.
We are getting the impression that the Swiss law enforcement system is protecting the aggressor Putin and is deliberately slowing down my case.
It only begs the question: why?
Hasanboy Burhanov
P.S. Swiss Police uses the oppressive methods of dictatorships