Ten arrested over attack on pair at Winterthur mosque
The Local - [email protected]
Published: 21 Feb, 2017 CET.
Updated: Tue 21 Feb 2017 11:01 CET
Police in the canton of Zurich arrested ten people on Tuesday morning suspected of attacking two others at the An’Nur mosque in Winterthur because they tipped off a journalist about a controversial sermon given by the mosque’s imam.
The ten suspects, aged between 17 and 53, were arrested after a raid on a dozen houses in the Winterthur area, the Zurich public prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is alleged the ten were involving in an brutal attack on two Muslims on November 22nd.
The pair are thought to have tipped off a journalist about a controversial sermon given by the mosque’s imam in late October.
In his sermon the imam called for the murder of Muslims who do not participate in communal prayer, and for others to denounce such people.
The media’s reporting of the sermon resulted in the arrest of the imam and three others in early November.
Two were later released but the imam and a board member of the mosque are facing prosecution for inciting crime and violence.
The An ‘Nur mosque was then suspended by the Zurich Federation of Islamic Organizations (Vioz), which said the imam’s words “contradict the commitment to Swiss rule of law and democracy that we ask of all our members”.
Following Tuesday’s arrests, criminal proceedings have now been opened against nine adults and one juvenile for allegedly badly beating and threatening the two people suspected of having given the journalist information on the sermon, said prosecutors.
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The ten suspects, aged between 17 and 53, were arrested after a raid on a dozen houses in the Winterthur area, the Zurich public prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is alleged the ten were involving in an brutal attack on two Muslims on November 22nd.
The pair are thought to have tipped off a journalist about a controversial sermon given by the mosque’s imam in late October.
In his sermon the imam called for the murder of Muslims who do not participate in communal prayer, and for others to denounce such people.
The media’s reporting of the sermon resulted in the arrest of the imam and three others in early November.
Two were later released but the imam and a board member of the mosque are facing prosecution for inciting crime and violence.
The An ‘Nur mosque was then suspended by the Zurich Federation of Islamic Organizations (Vioz), which said the imam’s words “contradict the commitment to Swiss rule of law and democracy that we ask of all our members”.
Following Tuesday’s arrests, criminal proceedings have now been opened against nine adults and one juvenile for allegedly badly beating and threatening the two people suspected of having given the journalist information on the sermon, said prosecutors.
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