Climate Activists Sentenced For Zurich Bridge Blockade

On a Saturday afternoon in June 2020, car and tram traffic on the Quai Bridge came to a standstill for several hours. Around 300 climate activists sat down on the road and tram tracks to draw attention to global warming.

Many of them deliberately wedged themselves in with their arms and legs so that they had to be“untangled” by the police and dragged away. The Federal Court has now sentenced three of them in the last instance, as can be seen from the judgements published on Friday. The cases involve two women and one man.

The Federal Court convicted all three of them of coercion – because people had to accept a diversion – as well as disrupting operations that serve the general public. This refers to the tram service, which was blocked for several hours.

One of the two convicted women received an unconditional fine of CHF400 ($508) because she already had a criminal record. The other two had no previous convictions and therefore received conditional fines.

The Federal Court came to the conclusion that the sentences were compatible with federal law and the European Convention on Human Rights. The activists had deliberately disrupted the daily lives of other people. This disruption had gone beyond the normal exercise of freedom of expression and assembly.

Climate groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Act Now repeatedly paralysed streets until about two years ago. Currently, this form of climate protest has receded into the background.

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