Immunity lifted Glarner may be investigated for fake video
SVP National Councillor Andreas Glarner from Aargau on Friday morning after his hearing by the National Council's immunity committee.
Image: Keystone
SVP National Councillor Andreas Glarner (right) in autumn 2020 during a conversation with Green National Councillor Sibel Arslan (left) on the fringes of a climate movement action on the Bundesplatz. (archive image)
Image: Keystone
SVP National Councillor Andreas Glarner from Aargau on Friday morning after his hearing by the National Council's immunity committee.
Image: Keystone
SVP National Councillor Andreas Glarner (right) in autumn 2020 during a conversation with Green National Councillor Sibel Arslan (left) on the fringes of a climate movement action on the Bundesplatz. (archive image)
Image: Keystone
SVP National Councillor Andreas Glarner loses his immunity after publishing a deepfake video during the election campaign and is under criminal investigation for identity fraud.
27.06.2025, 14:03
26.03.2026, 09:52
SDA
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- SVP National Councillor Andreas Glarner is under criminal investigation for a deepfake video during the election campaign.
- Green politician Sibel Arslan was falsely portrayed in the video.
- She then pressed charges.
Aargau SVP National Councillor Andreas Glarner may be the subject of a criminal investigation. The case concerns a video generated using artificial intelligence. The responsible parliamentary committee definitively lifted Glarner's immunity on Friday.
The Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of States (RK-S) agreed with the decision of the National Council's Immunity Committee (IK-N) on Friday by 8 votes to 2, as Committee President Daniel Jositsch (SP/ZH) told the media in Bern. The decision to lift the immunity is therefore final.
The majority in the responsible committees are of the opinion that in the case of the fake video, the interest in prosecution should be given greater weight than freedom of expression in the context of election campaigns.
Sibel Arslan denounced Andreas Glarner
The case concerns a video that Glarner shared during the 2023 election campaign. In this so-called deepfake video, Basel Green Party National Councillor Sibel Arslan allegedly made comments about "criminal Turks" and called on people to vote for the SVP. Arslan subsequently denounced Glarner.
Among other things, she accused Glarner of misusing her identity. This is an offense that has only been listed in the Swiss Criminal Code since September 2023. This was the first time that the two parliamentary committees responsible for immunity dealt with such a video.
Video had already occupied the Basel judiciary
Because the decisions of the National Council and Council of States committees are the same, the public prosecutor's office in Muri-Bremgarten AG can now investigate. The latter announced in March that it had submitted a request to Bern for Glarner's immunity to be waived.
The video had already been a matter for the Basel judiciary. Arslan took Glarner to court and sued for violation of her personal rights. In October 2023, the Basel-Stadt civil court ordered Glarner to remove the video from the internet by way of a super-provisional injunction. He also had to pay a fine.
Deepfake technologies can create deceptively real images, videos or sound recordings. In the recent past, they have been used before elections in several countries, for example.
Transparency note: An earlier version of the article contained the false statement that Andreas Glarner was convicted by the Basel civil court in 2023 for violating the personal rights of Sibel Arslan. In fact, however, it was a super-provisional injunction.
