Marco Camenisch

Marco Camenisch.

Marco Camenisch is a Swiss anarchist and environmental activist. He is in prison for the 1989 murder of a border guard in Brusio, Switzerland.^[1]

Biography[]

Early life[]

Camenisch was born on January 21, 1952 in Campocologno, Switzerland and raised in a middle-class home in canton Graubünden. He dropped out of high school because he felt the teachings were elitist. During his apprenticeship as a farmer at the  [de] school, he opposed the use of chemical fertilizers in farming. Marco became a mountaineer but soon started to believe that his political aims could not be achieved unless he became more direct in his activism.^{[citation needed]}

Activism[]

In the late 1970s, Camenisch was involved in local opposition to the nuclear power industry. In Switzerland, as in other countries, the movement against nuclear power plants utilized tactics of direct action: cutting down electrical pylons, sabotage against power stations, and actions against leaders of the nuclear industry.^{[citation needed]}

On Christmas eve of 1979, Camenisch with René Moser sabotaged a power station belonging to NOK (Nordostschweizer Kraftwerke) at Bad Ragaz, St. Gallen with explosives, destroying two transformers and a power pole. The pair were arrested for the sabotage in January 1980 and after spending a year free on bail, the court of Canton in Chur and Graubünden sentenced Camenisch to 10 years in prison.^[2][3] A co-defendant was sentenced to 7.5 years. At the trial Camenisch refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the court or cooperate with its procedures. In court Cemenisch read a statement in which he connected direct actions as a protest against the environmental degradation caused by the energy industry with the struggle against the capitalist social order.^{[citation needed]}

Escape[]

In December 1981, he escaped from Regensdorf prison^[2] near Zürich, along with 5 other prisoners. During the melée a prison guard was shot and killed, and another was seriously injured. Camenisch claimed he hadn't been part of the group which committed the shootings. After the escape he spent 10 years in hiding.^{[citation needed]}

In 1989, Swiss federal police and media claimed he was responsible for the killing of Swiss border police officer Kurt Moser at Brusio.^[2] A witness of the murder claimed to recognize Camenisch and the Blick printed his photograph.^{[citation needed]} The witness later retracted, saying he had only overheard the shots. Supporters of Camenisch spawned doubt regarding his guilt, turning him into a "martyr of the State". Camenisch returned into hiding for two years.^{[citation needed]}

Arrest in Italy[]

After his escape he spent his life in Turin, Sondrio and Carrara. He spent several years in the mountains of Carrara and in the Cooperativa Tipolitografica, the main anarchist printing shop at the time. He never revealed his identity until the day he was caught.^{[citation needed]}

On November 5 1991, Camenisch was stopped by Carabinieri on Cinquale di Montignoso road, along with fellow anarchist Giancarlo Sergianpietri. Camenisch produced a handgun and opened fire, wounding one of the soldiers. In the ensuing shootout, he was wounded in one leg and arrested. Two guns and six rrudimentary bombs were found at his place. He was taken to Pisa hospital, where he remained for 6 months, and later at San Vittore prison infirmary in Milano. The Italian Court of Massa Carrara sentenced him to 12 years for assault and sabotage of electrical pylons. He served 9 of those years while in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.^{[citation needed]}

Extradition to Switzerland[]

In April 2002, Camenisch was extradited to Switzerland and transferred to a prison in Pfäffikon near Zürich. In January 2003, after a hunger strike against the conditions of imprisonment he was suffering, he was transferred to a prison in Chur with better conditions.^{[citation needed]} Recently^[when?] the Swiss government transferred him back to Pfäffikon. In July 2004 he was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of Kurt Moser.^[2][3]

However, in November 2006 the Federal Supreme Court nullified this sentence on the basis that the sum of the two prison terms would exceed the maximum of 20 years set by Swiss law. On 13 March the sentence was therefore reduced to eight years.^{[citation needed]}

Camenisch has maintained his political beliefs during his time in prison, and he has remained a political activist.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Ecoterrorism

References[]