The moment when the three “agents” in black coats (on the right) are preparing to intervene against the activist.
DR
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded part of Israel to commit atrocities, which caused the deaths of more than 1,200 people. Israel’s response to the Gaza Strip was terrible. Over the months, more than 41,000 Palestinians have died under the bombs, including more than 16,000 children.
Neuchâtel resident Samuel Crettenand got involved very early on in drawing media attention to the massacre of children. In December 2023, he launched a hunger strike, while walking around with a sign that he updated every day with the count of victims. His action was simple: stand motionless in public places or train stations without a word with his sign.
December 18, 2023 at Berne station
This peaceful activism got him into a lot of trouble. It was especially in Bern that things went wrong, on December 18, 2023. Samuel Crettenand had been on hunger strike for a week. Around 6 p.m., he was standing at the foot of the escalator in the center of the station. “I was checked by private agents who took my identity card, which I presented and they told me that I was excluded from the station for 48 hours, which I refused.”
What followed quickly went wrong: “I very politely asked them to return my card to continue my action and as they did not want to give it back to me, I took it from the tablet that the agent used to make her report. They fell on top of me, put me on the ground and handcuffed me.”
“Stop your theater”
Then other agents intervene, including three mysterious men in black coats, who seem to come out of nowhere: “I explained that I had been on hunger strike for seven days… They put me in a cell and then I felt unwell. When I woke up, I had a policeman punching me in the sternum, I was semi-conscious, he punched me in the legs, in the thighs, telling me to stop acting, I keep hurting yourself if you don’t stop.”
This lasted until he was able to say he needed an ambulance and he was hospitalized. “There, the doctor in the ambulance asked what happened and the paramedic said that I had fought with the police because I was for Hamas. For me, it was clearly a political challenge.”
After two minutes, the demonstrator is rendered incapacitated by the two Transsicura agents, the three mysterious agents and finally two Bernese police officers who arrive as reinforcements.
DR
Samuel Crettenand filed a complaint against the agents. With his lawyer, they immediately asked to protect the evidence, that is to say the videos from the station. The police initially told them that the videos were no longer available. Then the prosecutor of the Berne Public Prosecutor’s Office notified them of the refusal of the complaint on the basis of the videos they had…
They appealed and finally the videos were recently added to the file. The defense was finally able to view them. We see Samuel Crettenand standing at the foot of the escalator, motionless with his sign. Two agents from Transsicura, the CFF private security force, appear, recognizable by their fluorescent vests. They ask him to leave, which he refuses. In the meantime, he presented them with his identity card which they took. As they don’t want to give it back to him, he tries to take it back and that’s where things get out of hand, he quickly gets tackled to the ground.
Seven agents around him
The scene then takes on another dimension. Going down the escalator, three men in black coats join the scene to neutralize the man on the ground and handcuff him. Even if they do not wear any distinctive sign of the police, they are obviously known to the other security forces, including the Bern police who come as reinforcements. Finally, in a few minutes, our pro-Gaza peace activist was surrounded by seven agents before being put in a cell.
Currently, the investigation procedure continues into the assault in the police station. Questioned by the Berne public prosecutor, a police officer who participated in the arrest refused to answer the question of what kind of people these three men in black coats were, these “men in black” as Samuel Crettenand calls them. , which he suspects are agents of a “political” nature. The continuation of the investigation will perhaps make it possible to clarify who they are, and why they intervene in this way in the station.
