These are worrying messages, published on social networks, which alerted Zurich investigators. The author of these publications, a 17-year-old Swiss boy, was arrested a week before Zurich Pride, which took place on June 15. The authorities also arrested another 14-year-old teenager, who was conspiring with the main suspect. It appears that the two teenagers were plotting against the largest queer demonstration in Switzerland. Both belong to families from Iraq and an unspecified Balkan country. The older man was already known to the authorities because he has a habit of spreading ISIS propaganda online.
This time, the 17-year-old planned to take action. According to a source from “NZZ”, the young person sought information on different messaging platforms to find out how to carry out an attack with a truck. He would have been referring to Helvetiaplatz, where most of the LGBTQ+ community was demonstrating. He actually planned to repeat the attack in Nice, which killed 86 people and injured 450 others. The cantonal police only confirm that the two teenagers were arrested “due to serious threats against the event”.
LGBTQ+ protests are particularly targeted by bigots. At the beginning of May, two fifty-year-old sisters from Vaud were tried before the federal criminal court in Bellinzona (TI) for having wanted to carry out an attack in Switzerland. During a brief stay in Syria in February and March 2015, the two women of Tunisian origin reportedly said they wanted to “break down the UN”, as well as Pride. The eldest was sentenced to 14 months in prison. The youngest, who does not have a Swiss passport, received an 18-month suspended prison sentence. She was not expelled from the territory.
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