Swiss court fines three Turks for Armenian Genocide denial

PanARMENIAN.Net - The District Court of Winterthur, Switzerland, imposed a fine on three Turks for denial of the Armenian Genocide. Ali Mercan was obliged to pay 4500 Swiss francs. Hasan Kemali and Ethem Kayali will have to pay 3600 Swiss francs each.



On 30 June, 2007, the three men joined a Turkish nationalist meeting organized by Dogu Perincek, the leader of Turkish Workers' Party. During the meeting they declared that the massacre of the Armenians was not Genocide, but an international lie orchestrated by France, U.K and Russian tsarists.



The defendants have ten days to appeal the court decision.



Dogu Perincek is the first person to be convicted by a court of law for denial of the Armenian Genocide. On 9 March 2007, he was found guilty by a Swiss district court of conscious violation of Swiss laws against genocide denial with a racist motivation and was fined CHF 12,000. The case was a result of Perincek's description of the Armenian genocide as "an international lie" at a demonstration in Lausannecon 25 July 2005. The verdict was confirmed by the Vaud cantonal appeal court on 19 June, and by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland on 12 December 2007.