Accused before Bülach district court Group pretends to be Cameroon's handball team and goes into hiding

A 45-year-old man posed as the head of the Cameroon national handball team: He entered Switzerland at Zurich Airport in January 2024 with a group of 19 people - and his entire team subsequently went into hiding. On Wednesday, the man will now stand trial at Bülach District Court.

Keystone-SDA

03.07.2024, 05:42

03.07.2024, 08:40

SDA

The public prosecutor's office has charged the Cameroonian with qualified facilitation of unlawful entry into and transit through Switzerland. The man, who has been in prison since January, is to be sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which will be deferred in favor of a probationary period of two years. He is also to be expelled from the country for six years.

On his arrival in Zurich, the 45-year-old stated that he was on his way to the Africa Cup in Egypt with his team. However, according to the indictment, they were not handball players. This was a pretext to obtain the necessary documents. "By providing false information, the accused enabled the 19 people to enter Switzerland without a visa."

17 alleged handball players then traveled on to France and went into hiding there. Two Cameroonians remained in Switzerland; they applied for asylum and then also went into hiding.

Meanwhile, the alleged leader of the national team was arrested. He and the public prosecutor's office have agreed to shortened proceedings. The man confessed and agreed to the proposed sentence.

In addition to the conditional custodial sentence and expulsion from the country, this proposed sentence also includes the confiscation of 17 passports. These will be handed over to the cantonal police - they can use them for training purposes at their document examination center.