Paris, 19 March 2007: For the occasion of the closure day of the Geneva Motor Show, some 10 activists from different organizations were planning to do a small demo at the inside of the Geneva motor show, deploying a banner to point out the hypocrite discourse of the car manufacturers.
As a preventive measure, Police Detectives of the Geneva Canton have taken the whole group of activists and the camera crews in their presence in custody, and kept them for more than 8 hours for questioning.
Jeroen Verhoeven, Coordinator of the 4x4network and participating in the action, has been hand-cuffed and taken away to the police station for questioning. The activists have been charged of being” the alleged authors of threats alarming the public”, even if the action did not take place!
In order to avoid any dissident voice at the motor show, the activists have been phone-tapped, hand-cuffed, strip searched, their DNA and fingerprints have been taken, and video material, laptops and mobile phones have been seized by the Geneva Police. The disproportionate character of the measures taken to prevent a non-violent action, gives reason to question the underlying motive of this intervention of the Geneva Police.
Jeroen Verhoeven strongly rejects the methods of the Swiss Police Detectives, who use anti-terrorist laws to intimidate and muzzle anti-4x4activists and says that: “Apparently pointing out the risks of climate change is equal to alarming the public and as such a criminal act under Swiss law”.
Only car manufacturers seem to have the right to “inform” the general public trough advertising for climate killing gas-guzzlers.
Because Climate Change is indeed a “threat which can alarm the general public”, the European groups united in the 4x4network will continue, despite the intimidations, to demand binding legislation for the emissions of newly sold cars, with a target of 120gC02/km by 2012.
Contact:
Jeroen Verhoeven +32.2 542 61 01 (mobile phone seized…)
http://www.4x4network.org/