Geneva, Jan 29, (dpa/GNA) – A Swiss court on Wednesday, fined a local politician for disturbing religious freedom, after she shot at an image of Jesus and Mary.
Sanija Ameti, 33, used the image as a target during a private shooting practice with an air gun, and uploaded photos of it to Instagram in 2024.
The district court in Zurich applied a statute stipulating that anyone who “insults or mocks the beliefs of others in matters of faith, in particular belief in God, in a malicious manner” should be punished.
Ameti is to pay a fine of 500 Swiss francs ($648). A fine of 3,000 Swiss francs was suspended on probation. She can still appeal the verdict.
The incident caused outrage in September 2024, with 60% of respondents expressing disbelief and 51% outrage in a representative opinion poll.
Ameti deleted the Instagram post after a few hours and apologized to church representatives. She lost her job and pre-empted her expulsion from the Green Liberal Party (GLP) by resigning.
Her lawyer had requested an acquittal, arguing that she had suffered from trauma that she had not been able to process for 30 years.
Ameti fled the former Yugoslavia with her family as a small child, after one of her brothers was shot dead.
Ameti herself did not speak in court. Before the trial, she said she had carelessly torn a page out of a catalogue and used it as a target.
Several representatives from right-wing political parties were present as joint plaintiffs, including Nicolas Rimoldi, president of the Mass-Voll association. In posts on X, Rimoldi had called for Ameti to be deported.
Her lawyer claimed that the joint plaintiffs wanted to hijack the case for their own purposes. They were concerned with the issue of “remigration,” he said. This is a term that refers to the forced return of migrants to their home countries.
GNA