- The public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Zurich applies for pre-trial detention.
- The 27-year-old should actually be released soon. The Supreme Court wants to lift the preventive detention.
- Brian, aka “Carlos”, has been in prison for the past five years without interruption – longer than originally intended.
- The defenders are disappointed and speak of an “unacceptable approach”.
The Zurich public prosecutor’s office does not want to accept the release of Switzerland’s best-known prisoner. According to the lawyers of 27-year-old Brian, he should be remanded in custody because of an ongoing process.
“Brian has behaved in an exemplary manner in prison over the past ten months, despite years of torture. Nevertheless, the public prosecutor’s office takes away any chance of a life in freedom, »says defense attorney Thomas Häusermann. Speaking about his lawyers, Brian says: «The law will be on my side. I will win.”
Zurich High Court wants to lift preventive detention
The Zurich Higher Court announced on Tuesday that Brian’s preventive detention was not proportionate and that excessive detention was imminent. Because Brian would have served the prison sentence of 4 years and 9 months that was last imposed by the district court in Dielsdorf four months ago with the current preventive detention.
The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss Brian is not final and may be appealed to federal court.
Probably the most famous prisoner in Switzerland
Brian has come a long way through numerous institutions: as a teenager he stabbed with a knife, followed by juvenile detention, psychiatry, measures. Again and again he ends up behind bars, because of bodily harm, but also preventively in unjustified detention.
In 2013, the then 17-year-old appeared under the name “Carlos” in an SRF documentary. His special setting for CHF 29,000 a month causes outrage and makes the case political.
Legend:
On October 31, 2022, the Zurich Higher Court ordered Brian to be released from preventive custody in the coming days.
KEYSTONE/Linda Graedel
Brian’s willingness to use violence and his resistance push the justice system to its limits. The Dielsdorf district court sentenced him to almost five years in prison for attempted serious bodily harm and other criminal offenses. The Zurich High Court increased the sentence to six years and four months. The Federal Supreme Court overturned this decision on November 12, 2021 and referred the case back to the Supreme Court.
During his pre-trial and preventive detention, Brian’s attorneys filed various complaints. In May 2022, the Federal Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the extension of preventive detention.
A case that made waves
In recent years, the long preventive detention and the prison conditions have not only occupied various courts, but also the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Swiss lawyer Nils Melzer. Both criticized the conditions of Brian’s detention and called for improvements.
In January of this year, the responsible Zurich judiciary announced that Brian would be transferred to a normal remand prison. Before that, he spent a long time in a solitary cell at the Pöschwies prison.