A man from Switzerland has been handed a prison sentence for posting a comment on Facebook that supposedly denigrated trans people.
On December 2, Emanuel Brünisholz, a musical instrument maker from Burgdorf in Canton Berne, started a 10-day sentence in a Swiss prison after he declined to pay a fine for his remarks online.
Supporters of Brünisholz said he was a martyr for free speech.
Andrea Seaman, manager of NGO Bündnis Redefreiheit (Alliance for Freedom of Speech) said: “A man goes to prison for telling the truth. The law which is supposed to protect freedom was used here to undermine it.
“If Swiss people do not want to live in a society where courts enforce intellectual conformity to trans ideology, this case must be a wake-up call. It is time for Switzerland to rise up against this unscientific, anti-freedom nonsense.”
In December 2022, Brünisholz had commented under a Facebook post by a conservative Swiss MP: “When they dig out LGBTQI people 200 years later they will only find male or female skeletons. Everything else is a mental illness created by school curricula.”
Eight months later, Brünisholz was interrogated by Swiss police. In September 2023, the prosecutor’s office opened proceedings against him.
The indictment read: “By posting a comment on Facebook, the accused publicly disparaged LGBT(Q)I individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation in a manner that violated human dignity.”
Brünisholz was sentenced to pay a fine of €540 with an additional fine of €2,700 suspended. He also had to pay court fees amounting to €860.
He appealed the verdict but was turned down. Since he refused to pay the fine, he was sentenced to a substitute sentence of 10 days in prison.
The Brünisholz case has caused a stir in Switzerland, including in legal circles.
As Swiss newspaper NZZ reports today, the country’s anti-racism regulations – which the court invoked – protect a person’s sexual orientation (gay, lesbian, bisexual), but not their sexual identity, ie whether they felt they were a man or a woman or something else.
Brünisholz’ comment had targeted sexual identity. Nevertheless, the Swiss justice system decided to criminalise it.
NZZ author Rico Bandle stated: “Free speech is under pressure in Switzerland as well.”
