Berset – Leuthard blackmail case: “The intervention of the supervisory authority is surprising” – News

A year ago, a woman tried to blackmail Federal Councilor Alain Berset for 100,000 francs by publishing private correspondence and pictures. The woman was denounced by Berset and sentenced by the federal prosecutor in September. Emails and photos were removed from their cell phones and laptops.

But was this procedure correct? The supervisory authority of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has announced that “it will initiate regulatory investigations with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to clarify its behavior in this matter.” SRF Bundeshaus editor Urs Leuthard classifies the situation.

Urs Leuthard

Head of the television department of the Bundeshaus SRF

Open the person boxClose the person box

Urs Leuthard has been head of the Bundeshaus editorial team at SRF television since the summer of 2020. He has moderated the “Voting Study” since 2002 and analyzes elections and voting. Until 2008 he was moderator and editor-in-chief of the “Arena”, after which he moved to the “Rundschau”, before in 2012 he assumed the editorial direction of the “Tagesschau”. Since 2016, Urs Leuthard was in charge of newsroom development at SRF Television.

SRF News: The intervention of the supervisory authority is a surprise and surprisingly fast. What alarmed you?

Urs Leuthard: I was particularly alarmed by the media coverage over the weekend. The supervisory authority itself announced it in a short statement. Obviously she is interested in removing incriminating material, image material and correspondence.

The federal prosecutor had said it was common practice. The supervisory authority now apparently has some doubts as to whether this is really correct. The intervention is surprising, as confirmed by various sources we have contacted. It would be particularly surprising if the supervisory authority had no clues other than media coverage.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is the center of investigations. Why not also investigate how Alain Berset behaved and if he possibly exerted pressure?

The supervisory authority is not a judicial authority that investigates individual cases, but its objective is to ensure that the Federal Prosecutor’s Office functions properly in terms of organization and processes. The criminal process itself, the extortion attempt, is over.

The accused has accepted his sanction order and so far there is no evidence that anything has gone wrong in the legal assessment of the case. Consequently, there is no indication that Federal Councilor Berset was guilty of anything.