Secret files scandal

That year, it was revealed that the Swiss federal authorities, as well as the cantonal police forces, had put in place a system of mass surveillance of the population.

[1] Files targeted Eastern European nationals, but also Swiss citizens, organizations, firms, and various political groups, mostly on the left.

[2] Furthermore, similar allegations concerning the Defence Ministry and its UNA department (Untertruppe Nachrichtendienst und Abwehr) emerged, to the effect that they too were storing files.

[1] Only a month before, the Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti had revealed the existence of Gladio, a NATO stay-behind network in all European countries.

Rémy Pagani, also a member of the Syndicat des services publics (SSP, Public Services Trade-Union) and MP for the Alliance de gauche (Left-wing coalition, a party based in Geneva), confirmed during the same trial that the file listed his presence in demonstrations where he had not been arrested, as well as his participation in the occupation of a building in support of Nelson Mandela, although he had not been arrested for this act either.