In October 2019, a 28-year-old Tamil asylum seeker is said to have been kidnapped by five compatriots in Tann-Dürnten and taken to Stans and tortured. The accused protested their innocence before the district court in Hinwil.
The District Court of Hinwil is visiting Zurich for the trial.
While the Raiffeisen trial is taking place in the Volkshaus, the district court in Hinwil has the right to stay in the largest courtroom of the district court in Zurich for several days because its own capacities are too small: five suspects, five defense attorneys, ten police officers, the public prosecutor and various spectators and Media representatives crowded the court in Zurich Hall 31: The accused Tamils between the ages of 25 and 29 are accused of kidnapping and beating a fellow countryman in October 2019 and using methods that can definitely be described as torture.
The head and client of the kidnapping is said to be a Tamil, who is only called “Master” by everyone else. He’s on the run. Five suspects who are said to have carried out the kidnapping on his behalf are on trial. There are country expulsions at stake. The accused state that they face the threat of death if they are deported to their home country of Sri Lanka. All have been in prison for 20 months and have called the alleged victim a liar. Your defense lawyers want to demand full acquittals in court.
Surrounded and dragged into car
The suspected kidnapping victim, a 28-year-old Tamil with residence status N, is first questioned in court. His application for asylum has been rejected. He describes how on his way home on October 21, 2019, late in the evening at around 10:30 p.m., several men suddenly appeared near his asylum accommodation in Tann-Dürnten. Some would have carried wooden cricket bats. He pulled out a small pocket knife that was hanging on his bunch of keys to defend himself. He was grabbed by the hand, fixed and hit by several people involved, then they dragged him into the back seat of a car. He fought back and screamed.
Six of you drove to Stans in a car. He was also beaten on the way. A martyrdom lasting several hours then began at the Forsthaus barbecue area next to the Stanserhorn cable car. It was only there that “Master” appeared, along with six other men. The victim was said to have been repeatedly hit in the back with cricket bats and punched in the face while sitting on a rock. He was also kicked. The man had to do squats, dance and sing. According to the indictment, he also had to put Master’s bare toe in his mouth and suck it.
Beaten and filmed naked
He was then taken to an adjacent wooden hut and had to undress there. He was filmed with a cell phone. He was hit on his bare genitals with a cricket bat. “Master” then asked him to confess that he had slept with “Master’s” ex-partner. This was filmed. They threatened to kill him or release the films if he went to the police. At 4 a.m. the victim was driven back and released in Wollerau.
His wounds alone are evidence that something bad must have happened: He suffered a heart injury, broken ribs and transverse processes, and an electrolyte imbalance. According to what he said in the courtroom, he could no longer see anything with one swollen eye and only blurry with the other. He was taken to the hospital, where he stayed for three days. He still suffers from back pain today.
Those accused who are questioned on the first day of the trial describe what happened very differently: the late-evening meeting in Tann-Dürnten was agreed in advance to “discuss problems” that “Master” had with the injured party. The victim attacked her there with a large knife. One suspect admitted only two flat-foot slaps in the face of the alleged attacker to fend him off and a bite on the fixed hand to make him release the knife. It was not a small pocket knife, but a large one with a long blade. They then talked, offered the victim beer and invited him to “the party among friends” in the forest in Stans.
“Just partying and drinking beer”
The victim got into the car voluntarily. On the drive they only drank and talked. In the forest, only “Master” hit the injured party, nobody else. They couldn’t do anything about that. Otherwise they would not have noticed anything about the abuse of the alleged victim. Nothing happened in the hut. “We just had a party and drank beer.” When asked why the injured party should falsely accuse them, the accused explain that his application for asylum had been rejected and that, as the alleged victim of an act of violence, he was still trying to obtain a visa for a stay in Switzerland.
One of the accused complains that the injured party tells too much, they are five and they are not taken seriously. They have been innocently imprisoned for 20 months now. In addition, many more people were at the party at the barbecue area. – The prosecutor will seek convictions for conspiracy to commit deprivation of liberty and kidnapping, assault and coercion. However, she does not want to provide any information on the first day of the trial about the amount of her applications. In the case of convictions according to the indictments, the country expulsions would be mandatory. Three days are scheduled for the hearing this week. The verdict is scheduled to open on February 9th.