ThoseCriminal call chamber
A trader worried by justice for a decapitation video
Falsely accused of scam, the defendant was implicated for held violent images on his phone. He is acquitted on appeal.
A decapitation video found on his phone led him to justice.
IMAGO/Silas Stein
- A Geneva merchant of Afghan origin was falsely accused of scam in autumn 2023.
- A decapitation video found on his phone led him to justice.
- The police court sentenced him to represent the violence.
- The Court of Justice finally acquitted him, recognizing his opposition to the Taliban.
Be the subject of two criminal complaints without proof, be arrested, undergo a search and find themselves suspected of complacency in Geneva vis-à-vis the violence of the violence of the violence of the violence of Taliban… All of this arrived in a few months to a Swiss merchant of Afghan origin, learned the “Tribune de Genève”.
In the fall of 2023, the merchant, a father working in the canton for twenty-five years, has been accused of scam by two individuals. The entrepreneur received the police visit on October 3. As he has nothing to blame himself for, he immediately agrees to let the agents search his premises and his electronic devices. Criminal complaints will quickly be the subject of a Non -entry prescription rendered by the Geneva public prosecutor.
The story could have stopped there. Except that a video found on the independent mobile phone will greatly complicate his situation towards the police and justice. Indeed, the film, dated October 2, 2023, shows a decapitation of a duration of twenty-two seconds. We see a man whose bottom of the shirt and the top of the pants are smeared with blood.
“Animal savagery”
A Taliban grabs his head and slaughter it, not with a stab, but at length, cutting the flesh of many cuts. Blood springs from the unfortunate neck, which curls up, then no longer moves. The killer continues to cut the victim’s head, then, according to the report of the Geneva police, “another man takes over and does the same, then raises his head and brandishes it by shouting on several occasions Allah Akbar”.
During the second part of the scene, a Farsi text, a language spoken in Afghanistan, denounces the savagery of the Taliban.
Heard by the police as a defendant, the independent explains that he received the video of an active friend in resistance in Afghanistan. This shipment was therefore intended, he said, to denounce the Islamist fundamentalists. The hearing report retains that the merchant tried to broadcast these images on Facebook which, violence obliges, would then have blocked his account until October 9.
Member of his tortured family
Then questioned by the public prosecutor, the defendant denies having tried to share this video. He believes that the agent believed that he was supporting this barbarism. It is not, he continues, since a member of his family was tortured in the country by the Taliban and that the latter died of his injuries.
In 2023, the public prosecutor sanctioned the Geneva merchant for representation of violence. A conviction confirmed the end of last year by the police court (TP): “The video shows a long and very detailed scene of slaughtering and decapitation […]of extreme violence, an act of appalling cruelty, ”says TP.
For the court of first instance, the film is not a report, nor a documentary intended to inform the general public of the atrocities committed by the Taliban and “has no vocation to prevent violence among the recipients of the film, nor to prevent other acts of violence from the Taliban. […] The film is sent to individuals, […] and not to the press. The fact that the defendant tried to broadcast him on Facebook instead of sending him to the media confirms it. ”
Contact the media
For the court, the video […] Sorts “from the framework of information and prevention, so that it is not essential for teaching or research. In addition, the scene is filmed out of any context and the fact that a text at the end of the video notes that there is “no more wild than the Taliban” is not enough to exclude at least the trivialization of violence. “
The judgment concludes that these images, which he has received, viewed and preserved, therefore present “no cultural or scientific value” likely to exonerate the defendant. The latter, concludes the TP, could have for example sending this video to the media so that these actions were made public or invite his friend to do the same.
The defendant, who appealed, obtains today an acquittal before the Court of Justice. For the latter, there is no doubt, “in view of the origin of the caller, the course which brought him to Switzerland and the various damages probably suffered by his family from the Taliban, which he does not subscribe to the speech of the latter and that the incriminated video was only exchanged in the sole view of denouncing the actions of this group”. For judges, any desire to keep it for personal “consumption” must be ruled out.
What about the alleged broadcast on Facebook chosen at first instance? “The appellant varied in his statements […]but it is not established with the right satisfaction that he would have tried to do so. The recording was also received by the appellant that twenty-four hours before his arrest: in view of his working hours and the large quantity of messages which regularly reached him […]the explanation that he did not intend to keep the video, but had not immediately erased it by pure negligence, is plausible. ”
Successful businessman
The most favorable version to the accused must therefore be favored, in application of the principle In doubt for the accused (for the benefit of the doubt), estimates the criminal chamber of appeal and revision in its judgment rendered this summer. Man is therefore acquitted from the chief of Representation of violence.
Defendant’s lawyer, Me Benjamin Grumbach is now satisfied with the outcome of this case: “My client thanks the court of appeal for his just reading of the procedure. He was insane for him to be considered support for the Taliban, insofar as this regime forced him to leave his native land over twenty years ago. Switzerland, father and successful businessman, he is an example for everyone. ”
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