Swiss Court Rejects Climate Activists’ Police Eviction Costs in Landfill Protest Case
A Zurich court has overturned a ruling that would have forced climate activists to pay for police eviction costs. The decision follows a protest last spring against a construction waste landfill expansion in Rümlang. The case may now head to Switzerland’s highest court for further review.
In spring 2023, activists from the collective Wald statt Schutt occupied a forest to protest the planned expansion of a landfill. Police cleared the site, detaining eleven protesters and arresting three after hours of resistance. The operation cost authorities 108,800 francs, but a lower court initially ordered the activists to cover just 14,000 francs of that sum.
The Zurich Administrative Court later ruled that the legal basis for recovering these costs was unclear. This decision came as separate legal challenges continue over the landfill’s development plan, which the Building Appeals Court has already rejected. Meanwhile, changes to Swiss law on cost-shifting for protests are set to take effect on January 1, 2026. These amendments could allow authorities to charge protesters for operations in cases of 'willful misconduct'. The recent ruling, however, does not yet account for these upcoming legal adjustments.
The activists currently face no financial penalty, though the case may still be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. The outcome could influence how future protest-related costs are handled under the new 2026 regulations. The landfill expansion itself remains stalled due to ongoing legal disputes.
Read also:
- American teenagers taking up farming roles previously filled by immigrants, a concept revisited from 1965's labor market shift.
- Weekly affairs in the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag)
- Landslide claims seven lives, injures six individuals while they work to restore a water channel in the northern region of Pakistan
- Escalating conflict in Sudan has prompted the United Nations to announce a critical gender crisis, highlighting the disproportionate impact of the ongoing violence on women and girls.
