The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Grand Chamber1 hearing today Wednesday 28 January 2015 at 9.15 a.m. in the case of Perinçek v. Switzerland (application no. 27510/08)

The case concerned the criminal conviction of the applicant, a doctor of laws and the Chairman of the Turkish Workers’ Party, for publicly challenging the existence of the Armenian genocide in 2005.

Note, being a doctor of laws and the Chairman of the Turkish Workers’ Party, he participated in various conferences in Switzerland in May, July and September 2005, during which he publicly denied that the Ottoman Empire had perpetrated the crime of genocide against the Armenian people in 1915 and the following years.

He described the idea of an Armenian genocide as an “international lie”. The association “Switzerland- Armenia” filed a criminal complaint against him on 15 July 2005. On 9 March 2007 the Lausanne Police Court found Mr Perinçek guilty of racial discrimination within the meaning of the Article 261bis, paragraph 4 of the Swiss Criminal Code, finding that his motives were of a racist tendency and did not contribute to the historical debate. Mr Perinçek lodged an appeal that was dismissed by the Criminal Cassation Division of the Vaud Cantonal Court. In that court’s view, the Armenian genocide, like the Jewish genocide, was a proven historical fact. The courts did not therefore need to refer to the work of historians in order to accept its existence.

The Federal Court dismissed a further appeal by Mr Perinçek in a judgment of 12 December 2007. Relying on Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Mr Perinçek complains that the Swiss courts breached his freedom of expression. He argues, in particular, that Article 261bis, paragraph 4, of the Swiss Criminal Code is not sufficiently foreseeable in its effect, that his conviction was not justified by the pursuit of a legitimate aim and that the alleged breach of his freedom of expression was not “necessary in a democratic society”.

You can watch the Grand Chamber hearing HERE

Amal Ramzi Alamuddin, wife of prominent actor and human rights activist George Clooney, will be one of the attorneys representing Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

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