Indian President Prathibha Patil on State Visit to Switzerland

Indian President Prathibha Patil has been on a two days state visit in Switzerland. She started the official program of her visit in Bern (seat of the Swiss federal government) and continued through Lausanne to Geneva from where she left for a state visit to Austria.

Prathibha Patil and Micheline Calmy-Rey

Indian President Prathibha Patil began her two days state visit to Switzerland in Bern. On Bern‘s Parliament Square, the 76-year-old President and her husband were welcomed by the Federal Council with military honours. The Federal Council is Switzerland’s government composed of its seven ministers. In the morning, Patil and her delegation had taken a private tour of the historic centre of Bern.

The President of India’s tour included visits to the bears in the Bärengraben, the Rosengarten, the Cathedral of Saint Vincent and the Clock Tower. Earlier in the afternoon, Prathibha Patil had been privately greeted by Micheline Calmy-Rey at the Hotel Bellevue where they exchanged gifts customary for state visits.

After the official reception, the Indian President and her entourage were welcomed into the Bundeshaus. The Bundeshaus is the seat of the government and the parliament of Switzerland. Topics of the state visit are bilateral talks in the areas of finance and economy. Among other things, both countries have been negotiating on a free trade agreement since 2008. It should be completed by end of the year.

Switzerland and India have maintained intensive economic relations for many years. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India is the fourth most important trading partner for Switzerland in Asia. India's economy grew by 10.4 percent in 2010. The IMF has forecast a 8.2 percent growth for 2011. Swiss direct investment in India amounted to 3.3 billion Swiss francs in late 2009 or 0.4 percent of total Swiss investment abroad.

According to the Chamber of Commerce Switzerland-India, direct investments are only the tip of the iceberg. Swiss companies have invested considerably more in India. An estimated 170 Swiss companies have a presence in India and employ about 60,000 people. Swiss companies in India also do pioneering work in developing a dual vocational training system following the Swiss educational system.

In the morning of the second day, Prathibha Patil and Micheline Calmy-Rey received business representatives at the Hotel Bellevue in Bern. The Indian President, who was accompanied by a 45-member business delegation, stressed in her speech that the target of their visit was to intensify the bilateral economic relations between the two countries.

The Swiss President in turn mentioned the dynamic rhythm in the economic relations and invited Indian companies to use Switzerland as a gateway into the European market. That the economic potential is far from exhausted was stressed by Valentin Vogt, President of the Swiss Employers' Association and a member of the Executive Committee of Economiesuisse. The potential could be even further expanded by means a free-trade agreement between India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to which Switzerland belongs. The negotiations on just such an agreement are currently held and are reported to be in an intensive phase.

Following the business meeting, the two presidents travelled to Lausanne where they were welcomed by representatives of the University of Lausanne. The President of India and the Swiss Federal President were present at the signing of an agreement between the University of Lausanne and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations on Indian studies to be offered at the university.

Thanks to this memorandum of understanding, Indian professors will take turns in teaching for one semester at a time at the University of Lausanne. Rector Dominique Arlettaz welcomed the signing of the memorandum for offering the students greatly expanded courses related to India. The chair is funded almost exclusively by India.

After attending the University of Lausanne, Prathibha Patil boarded the paddle steamer La Suisse in Morges and proceeded to Geneva in style accompanied by Micheline Calmy-Rey. The President of India then flew from Geneva to Austria for a further state visit.

Further reader
1608: Walking From Somerset to India
James Abbott and Abbottabad
Nonexistent Switzerland

Carl Hirschmann Appeals Against Prison Sentence

Carl Hirschmann had received a 33 months prison sentence in a trial by the district court of Zurich. Unsurprisingly, he and his lawyers now have appealed against that sentence issuing from a trial on sex, lies, and videotapes.

Carl Hirschmann and Pierre Casiraghi of Monaco

The Carl Hirschmann trial had been about using force in his aim to get sex from several women, using force and causing bodily harm to his ex-girlfriend, and having sex with a girl of 15. The attorney general for the state of Zurich had asked for a four years prison sentence, but the judge ruled certain incidents that had allegedly taken place in London to be outside of Swiss jurisdiction and therefore sentenced Carl Hirschmann to 33 months in prison. 19 months have been set out on probation while 14 months will have to be served.

An appeal had to be expected under these circumstances, as the team of lawyers under the leadership of Dominique von Planta had obviously set their sight on a sentence below 24 months that could be set out on probation in its entirety. To add insult to injury, the judge had at the same time set a new bail amount for Carl Hirschmann, too. Hitherto, the bail had been set at 1 million Swiss francs (1.13 million dollars, 0.7 million pounds sterling); the judge raised it by 4 million Swiss francs to a total of 5 million. That is higher than the bail amount that had been set on Roman Polanski; they really don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the American legal system with that one.

Carl Hirschmann holds beside his Swiss passport also a French one; lawyers of victims had therefore demanded that bail should be withdrawn and Carl Hirschmann imprisoned immediately as a flight to France would remove him from immediate access for Swiss authorities. In such a scenario, a lengthy and costly extradition attempt would have to be made with a very uncertain rate of success. The judge moved for a punishingly high bail amount against which an appeal is not possible.

Dominique von Planta on the other hand has her work cut out for her. Her tactic of proving the women plaintiffs as liars and psychologically disturbed personalities did not work. IF at all, her final harangue against the plaintiffs was contra productive. The sentence of 33 months is high enough, considering that quite a few of the alleged charges had been removed from the tally for having occurred in London, to be considered a total defeat. She’ll have to devise a completely different approach for the appeal hearings.

It has to be said, though, in favour of Carl Hirschmann’s lawyers that they had a difficult position to maintain. With the allegation of having had sex with a minor uncontested and the record of several incidents of having caused bodily harm on record, it is difficult to paint the accused in the guise of innocence. The startlingly high pecuniary claims by the plaintiffs (for Swiss standards) on the other hand do nothing to prove their truthfulness.

Whatever the outcome of the appeal, we seem to be continuing the almost interminable Hirschmann saga into 2012. The story broke in 2009, when the attorney general of Zurich botched a press conference. Since then, the name of Carl Hirschmann has been permanently in the news.

Further reading
The Carl Hirschmann Trial: It Was All About Sex
Carl Hirschmann's Home Theatre
Poor Rich Boy: Carl Hirschmann

The Carl Hirschmann Trial: It Was All About Sex

It has been a long time coming, but finally the trial against millionaire Carl Hirschmann has taken place in Switzerland. Accused of various charges of sexual harassment and on one count of sex with a minor, Carl Hirschmann was tried in a two days trial. 

Carl Hirschmann

Carl Hirschmann finally had his trial at the district court of Zurich. The list of allegations was long and almost all of them had to do with sex. It was alleged that he had used force and coercion to reach his aims, that he had forced sexual intercourse with several women just stopping short of rape, and that he had sex with a minor. The press would have had a heyday if the court hadn’t decided to restrict access to the select circle of accredited journalists which abide by its secrecy rules on such occasions.

The restrictions were not put in place for Carl Hirschmann’s benefit, but to preserve the anonymity of the women involved in the case as plaintiffs beside the state. Despite being closed to the public, the trial was packed with all the lawyers of the plaintiffs and the state prosecutor as well as the teal of lawyers representing Carl Hirschmann who were headed by Dominique von Planta.

The prosecution had demanded a sentence of four years in prison for Carl Hirschmann; his defence lawyers demanded his acquittal. The court in the end decided to send him to prison; 14 months in prison have to be served, 19 months were deferred in probation with a probationary period of two years. At first glance, this might look like a lot less than the 48 months demanded by the state prosecutor, but at closer inspection it actually isn’t.

The prosecution had included incidents of force and physical abuse alleged by Carl Hirschmann’s ex-girlfriend which had supposedly taken place during their stay in London. The court ruled that it was not responsible for incidents happening in the jurisdiction of Great Britain and excluded them from the considerations. Until she takes them into a court in London they will therefore remain alleged.

Otherwise, the court considered the allegations made by the three women as proven; the case of sex with a 15 year old girl was not in contention as Carl Hirschmann had pleaded guilty on that count from the beginning.

Looking at it that way, the tactics of Carl Hirschmann’s defence was an unmitigated disaster. Dominique von Planta had tried from the start to depict the women involved as being untrustworthy and as liars. In her closing statement, she had attacked them one by one trying to discredit them and their allegations. She also had a go at the state prosecutor for the press disaster that had brought the whole affair into the press over two years ago.

The state prosecutor retaliated by calling Carl Hirschmann media hungry and proved it with an e-mail sent by Hirschmann to a friend: “It’s quite a sexy feeling to be public enemy number one.” The prosecutor has a point, at least to my way of thinking. A man who has to claim having had a fling with Paris Hilton is asking for trouble with the media because there really is nothing else to attract one to Paris Hilton except a terribly bad taste in women.

The state prosecutor said after the verdict that he probably will not appeal against the sentencing as it seemed balanced under the circumstances. Dominique von Planta on the other hand reserved judgement on launching an appeal on part of the defendant until she had studied the written ruling in detail. Should she decide to go into an appeal, she will have to change her tactics drastically. Otherwise, the appeal might even backfire.

Further reading
Carl Hirschmann's Home Theatre
Poor Rich Boy: Carl Hirschmann
When a Sassy Headline Becomes an Embarrassment