Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 - Switzerland

The United States worked closely with the Government of Switzerland, the Swiss Bankers' Association, the financial community, and cantonal law enforcement authorities. Senior U.S. Treasury officials met frequently with Swiss officials throughout the year. Swiss security services continued to monitor activities of terrorist groups with a presence in Switzerland and coordinated with appropriate USG officials, although the scope of the coordination was limited. Swiss law severely restricts the level of information-sharing possible on banking issues.

The Swiss Parliament ratified the United States-Swiss Operative Working Agreement, which entered into force on December 1 and should facilitate more bilateral law enforcement and intelligence cooperation. The Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs also agreed to co-sponsor a second Bioterrorism Workshop (Black Ice II), with the State Department.

The Swiss have grown more conscious of the presence of terrorist groups on Swiss soil. Authorities tightened measures to curb terrorist use of telecommunications and banking services. The Swiss Federal Police (FEDPOL) once again described Switzerland as a "Jihadi field of operations." The Federal Council, Switzerland's Cabinet, extended its ban on al-Qa'ida (AQ) and kept frozen approximately $28 million in AQ and Taliban assets in 82 separate accounts. This total amount of frozen assets is among the highest of any nation. During the past year, Swiss banks reported eight terrorist-related money laundering transactions, down from 20 reports a year ago.

On June 15 the Federal Council modified Switzerland's money laundering legislation to bring it into compliance with the recommendations of the FATF. All financial institutions, not just banks, now are required to report suspicious transactions. Also on June 15, the Federal Council decided to transfer the Special Tasks Service (STS) of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications (DETEC) to the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP). The STS serves as an intermediary between the criminal prosecution authorities and telecommunication service providers when it comes to the monitoring of correspondence by post and telecommunications. The surveillance measures must first be authorized by a judge. Telecom companies usually submit the required data to the STS, which forwards them to the criminal prosecution authorities for analysis. The STS does not undertake any surveillance nor does it have access to the monitoring results.

Swiss companies are slowly increasing the pressure on the Swiss government to allow them to participate in the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) initiative, but Swiss legal barriers preventing Swiss firms from being active participants remained in place. Article 271, paragraph 1 of the Swiss Penal Code forbids foreign government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, from validating or contacting Swiss companies that export. Strict Swiss privacy laws also make initiatives such as C-TPAT difficult to implement.

Due in part to increased antiterrorism activities in neighboring EU countries, several terrorist organizations, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Kongra-Gel/Kurdistan Worker's Party (KGK/PKK), and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), have a presence in Switzerland. Existing Swiss law and practice prevent the government from listing these entities as terrorist organizations.

Switzerland has already ratified the Council of Europe's Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure, and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime, and is a party to the UN International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.

The new "Pass 06" Swiss passport features electronically-stored data. The passport was introduced in September 2006 and provides greater reliability in identifying a person and is more tamper-resistant.

The Swiss government, recognizing the potential for terrorists to grow links in Switzerland, organized a meeting on November 26 between representatives of more than thirty Swiss-based Muslim organizations and the Federal Office of Police (FEDPOL) to address global issues related to internal security. Participants presented their views on internal security and stressed that it was important for them and condemned all forms of violence.

The Federal Council also took legislative steps to improve the nation's national security posture. On June 15, the Federal Council revised legislation enabling authorities to monitor terrorist suspects, spies and those involved with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction via telephone tapping, mail screening, video cameras, and bugs. The new measures must be approved by the Federal Administrative Court, the Justice Ministry, and the Defense Ministry.

In September, Justice Ministers from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland created a working group to fight terrorism. The ministers also discussed the German-Austrian Pruem agreement on transborder exchange of DNA information, fingerprints, and data storage. Switzerland's Federal Office of Police is evaluating the conditions under which Switzerland could participate. The Swiss Justice Minister reemphasized that Switzerland was no haven for terrorists, and that Swiss bank secrecy provided no room for criminal money.

On July 12, 2006, then Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher and then U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed a formal revision of the 2002 "Operative Working Agreement (OWA)". The new OWA was approved by parliament in June and entered into force on December 1, 2007. It will permit the exchange of law enforcement officials to create joint teams of investigators, though with restrictions on the use of information gathered by investigators. The new OWA extended the scope of the original, which was set up to regulate judicial cooperation in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States It provided the legal basis for joint investigations on terrorism and terrorism financing. These would only be set up once criminal proceedings had been launched in both countries and handed to a prosecutor. Unlike the initial OWA, cooperation was no longer limited to investigations related to AQ and the September 11 attacks, but extended to all terrorist groups linked to AQ. There has not yet been a formal investigation initiated under the scope of the OWA.