After GC-FCZ derby – Zurich district court finds FCZ torch thrower guilty – News

  • The Zurich district court found an FCZ fan guilty after throwing a flare.
  • The verdict against the now 23-year-old is, among other things: attempted grievous bodily harm.
  • He threw a burning distress flare into the GC fan block at the Zurich football derby in October 2021.

Shortly after the Zurich football derby between GC and FCZ on October 23, 2021, according to the indictment, around 60 FCZ fans, including the accused, masked themselves. They reached the GC fan sector via the tartan track.

There they threw pyrotechnic objects, especially distress flares, into the densely packed fan curve, where there were also families with children. Nobody was injured.

This is why distress flares are so dangerous


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The distress flares are flares that are difficult to extinguish. When they burn, they reach temperatures of over 2000 degrees Celsius and can cause severe burns.

For comparison: an oven, in which you can easily burn yourself, reaches around 250 degrees at a high setting.

In addition to the extreme heat, distress flares have another dangerous property: they are enriched with magnesium so that they cannot be extinguished with water and also burn under water. Because that is precisely the purpose of distress flares, as the name suggests.

The Zurich district court has now found the 23-year-old FCZ fan guilty. He received a conditional prison sentence of 17 months and a fine of 200 francs. The convicted person only has to go to prison if he commits another crime during the probationary period.

He has to pay the fine of 200 francs – and he also has to cover the procedural costs of more than 3,000 francs. According to the district court, the offense is attempted grievous bodily harm, as distress flares can cause serious burns due to their properties.

A video shows the throw

The judge stated that the accused acted recklessly and risked hurting others. As a video played in the courtroom showed, the accused threw the burning torch towards the GC fans with full force. “He obviously didn’t care whether opposing fans were hit,” said the judge. Ultimately it was a coincidence that it went smoothly and no one was injured.

The public prosecutor’s office, for its part, had demanded a conditional prison sentence of 22 months and a fine of 300 francs for attempted serious bodily harm. The court also took into account other crimes committed by the 23-year-old, but also that he quickly confessed to throwing the torch and regretted it.

The defendant’s defense had demanded an acquittal of attempted serious bodily harm because the torch landed on the tartan track in front of the GC fan sector and no one could have been injured there. It was a copycat act with no intention of hurting anyone. The throw was spontaneous and untargeted. The aim of the campaign was to get the GC banner. GC fans also lit flares.

The Zurich District Court’s ruling is not yet legally binding. It can be taken to the higher court.

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