The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has dropped its investigation into a complaint filed by former Belarusian political prisoner Natallia Hersche.
Hersche, a citizen of Belarus and Switzerland, filed a complaint over crimes against humanity.
The prosecutor agreed that the conditions of Hersche’s imprisonment were “extremely harsh” and “partly degrading,” but noted that these were common shortcomings of prisons in an authoritarian regime rather than torture. He also noted that the 13 Belarusian officials named in the complaint had never been to Switzerland.
An appeal against the prosecutor’s decision to drop the investigation was never considered because the power of attorney arrived too late, the Gotham City website reports.
Natallia Hersche is a citizen of Belarus and Switzerland. In 2020, she was sentenced in Belarus to 2.5 years in prison for pulling a balaclava off a riot police officer during one of the women’s marches.
In September 2021, her detention conditions were changed and she was transferred from a penal colony to a prison because she refused to sew uniforms for security forces while in the colony. Natallia was released in February 2022 after spending 17 months in detention.
