Violation of religious freedom
After shots fired at Jesus image: Young SVP files criminal complaint against Sanija Ameti
The GLP politician and co-president of Operation Libero shot at a picture of Mary and Jesus. Now she is facing criminal charges.
Sanija Ameti is co-president of Operation Libero.
Photo: Peter Klaunzer/Keystone
Sanija Ameti has since deleted the pictures on Instagram and apologized for possibly hurting people’s religious feelings. The co-president of Operation Libero had riddled a picture of Mary and the baby Jesus with holes in it using a sports pistol from a distance of 10 meters. Now the shooting exercise has legal repercussions.
The Young SVP Switzerland has filed a criminal complaint against Ameti for disturbing freedom of belief and worship, as it announced on Monday. According to the criminal code, this offence is committed by “anyone who publicly and in a mean manner insults or mocks the beliefs of others in matters of faith, in particular belief in God, or desecrates objects of religious worship”.
The bone of contention: the bullet holes in the picture with Jesus and Mary.
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JSVP President Niels Fiechter believes that Ameti’s shooting of Mary and Jesus violated the freedom of belief and worship of millions of Christians. Mary and Jesus are to be seen as leading figures of the Christian religion. Fiechter has already committed a crime himself. The Federal Court convicted him in 2022 of violating anti-discrimination law. It concerned a poster about transit places for foreign travelers.
Expulsion from the party is an option for GLP president
The 32-year-old lawyer Sanija Ameti sits on the party leadership of the GLP in the canton of Zurich and is a politician for her party in the Zurich city parliament. Her post sparked discontent within her own ranks. “This is the height of stupidity,” said Jürg Grossen, President of the GLP Switzerland, to watson.ch. “We will meet in the party’s committees to discuss how to proceed in this matter. Excluding Sanija Ameti from the Green Liberals is one of several options that we will discuss.”
Ameti caused a lot of outrage on social media with her idiosyncratic targeting. On the portal kath.ch, Jesuit Franz-Xaver Hiestand spoke to the conscience of the face of Operation Libero. Her Instagram post revealed a shocking ignorance of the meaning of religious symbols. And: “She and the environment that makes such posts, such derailments possible, deserve a decisive reaction on various levels.”
