No: 83, 12 March 2014, Press Release Regarding the Referral of Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on the case of “Perincek v.Switzerland” to the Grand Chamber by Switzerland

In a judgment published on 17 December 2013, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had ruled that Switzerland breached Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights on “freedom of expression” in the case of Doğu Perinçek v. Switzerland.

We have learned through the written statement by Swiss Federal Office of Justice on 11 March 2014 that Switzerland has decided to object to this judgment and refer it to the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR .

Having full confidence in the rule of law, we expect that the Grand Chamber will confirm once more and forcefully that "freedom of expression", which is the building bloc of democratic societies, is safeguarded.

In this way, we believe that the efforts to politicize the law will be aborted once again.