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Philippe Rossier
“If a hostage is released, most of it has been paid.” Former Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger (74) should now bitterly regret this ruling. In an interview with “NZZ am Sonntag”, the SP man accused the government of lying about the ransom payments. Because: Switzerland’s official position in this regard is really clear: no ransom is paid.
Either Leuenberger’s statements were wrong, or he may have leaked a Federal Council secret. His former colleague Christoph Blocher (80) described Leuenberger’s statements as more than frivolous: “That invites you to more kidnappings,” he told VIEW. For the SVP dean it was already clear at the beginning of the month: “The Federal Council in office should now definitively initiate an investigation.”
Did Leuenberger violate the official secret?
And that is exactly what Leuenberger is flourishing now, as the “Tages-Anzeiger” publishes today. “We have submitted the corresponding request to the Department of Justice and Police,” the spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor Linda von Burg explained to the newspaper. The Federal Prosecutor wanted to investigate whether former Federal Councilor Leuenberger had violated official secrecy. However, to do this, you first need the approval of the Federal Council.
Already after the media outcry in early February, Leuenberger’s cancer returned. “If my statements gave the impression that the Federal Council ever paid a ransom to buy hostages, I expressly regret it,” he told the Tages-Anzeiger at the time. During his tenure from 1995 to 2010, to the best of his knowledge, the ransom money was never resolved, he said. The money could have come from another source. (dbn)
