11 August 2017

Swiss charge Ethiopian imam with inciting violence

Swiss prosecutors have charged an Ethiopian imam with inciting violence and other offences, they said on Friday, alleging he called in a mosque sermon for followers to kill Muslims who did not pray in the community.

The step by prosecutors in the northern town of Winterthur comes amid heightened sensitivity to the risk of Islamist violence in Switzerland, whose spy agency warned about the threat in May.

Prosecutors did not name the imam, one of four people they said were linked to the local An'Nur mosque and who have been under investigation since November on suspicion of inciting criminal or violent acts.

"In his homily of Oct. 21, 2016, in the An'Nur Mosque, he is accused among other things of calling for expelling Muslims who do not pray in the community, and even burning them and killing them in their homes if they still refuse," the prosecutors said in a statement. [Reuters] Read more