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Ticino fights back after speeding German shrugs off Swiss prison sentence

The Local
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Ticino fights back after speeding German shrugs off Swiss prison sentence
File photo: Matthias Ripp

A minister in the canton of Ticino has vowed to put a German man behind bars after he laughed off a Swiss court judgement sentencing him to a year in prison for driving at 200km/hr through the Gotthard road tunnel.

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The 42-year-old BMW driver from Stuttgart was last week convicted of speeding at more than 200km/hr and overtaking ten cars in the Gotthard road tunnel in July 2014, reported Blick
 
Considered a high risk road, the 16.4km Gotthard road tunnel has seen many accidents over the years. In 2001 a fire sparked by a collision between two trucks left 11 dead and 128 injured. The usual speed limit is 80km/hr.
 
A court in Lugano last week handed the German a 30-month sentence, of which one year must be spent behind bars. 
 
But the offender, who admitted the facts, did not attend his trial and has no intention of serving his time. And he may not have to – as long as he stays away from Switzerland. 
 
Interviewed by Blick last week, he shrugged off the judgement, saying it “doesn’t interest me. I’ve seen everything in Switzerland, I don’t need to go back”. 
 
He also showed no remorse for his excess speed, saying he had been on holiday in Lake Como, Italy, at the time, and simply wanted to take his car for a spin. 
 
“It was fun,” he said.
 
To top it off, after police seized his vehicle he travelled back to lake Como in Italy in a taxi but refused to pay the taxi driver the 360 euros fare, according to Blick.
 
 
On Monday Ticino justice minister Norman Gobbi said he would do everything he could to see the offender put behind bars. 
 
A Ticino court would instruct the Swiss federal justice office to request the man’s extradition from Germany, Gobbi told Blick
 
“If Germany will not hand him over, then he should purge his sentence there,” he added.
 
“It should also be investigated whether the driver is fit to drive. If not, his permit must be taken away. This man put others’ lives in danger. The Gotthard is one of the most dangerous roads in Europe”.
 
However it will ultimately be up to the federal authorities to decide if Switzerland should lodge an extradition request or issue an international arrest warrant, said the paper.
 

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