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Because incriminating statements are missing, the public prosecutor’s office ends the proceedings in several cases of forced marriages.
The Bern public prosecutor’s office has closed the proceedings surrounding the forced marriages in the House of Religions. The authority communicates this at the request of SRF.
Review: In November, “SRF investigativ” reported on at least twelve cases in which young people were married against their will in the House of Religions. The weddings were performed in the mosque of the house. It has never been revealed who officiated at the weddings.
Place of coercion instead of tolerance
The dismay in Bern was great: The fact that forced marriages should have taken place in the House of Religions, the institution that sees itself as a meeting place or place for dialogue between cultures, was and is shocking.
Legend:
The forced marriages are said to have taken place in the mosque of the House of Religions.
Keystone/PETER KLAUNZER
The House of Religions and the Muslim association in Berne – he runs the mosque – sharply condemned the events at the time. The House of Religions then initiated internal investigations and sensitized the religious communities under its roof to the issue with a “Code of Conduct”.
Mustafa Memeti, the leading imam of the mosque, took the consequences a few weeks after publication and announced his resignation. “Forced marriages are a heinous crime, these events make me stunned,” Memeti was quoted as saying in a statement at the time.
Difficult to prove a forced marriage
Now, in an order dated April 11, the public prosecutor’s office has stopped. Without incriminating statements from those affected or from third parties, the law enforcement authorities’ hands are tied, according to the letter available to SRF. “It is primarily up to those affected to report it, otherwise a forced marriage cannot be proven.”
No one affected reported to the authorities and SRF also did not disclose the identity of those affected with reference to source protection, it is said. Also, there are currently no other investigative approaches, according to the reasoning of the Bern public prosecutor’s office.