Swiss top court upholds Erwin Sperisen’s 14-year sentence

The Federal Supreme Court has confirmed Erwin Sperisen’s 14-year prison sentence, rejecting his appeal and finding that his right to a fair trial was respected. The ruling leaves in place the sentence imposed by Geneva’s Cantonal Court in 2024 for aiding and abetting murder in Guatemala.

The decision is the latest turn in a case that has been heard repeatedly in Geneva. The Swiss-Guatemalan dual national was convicted by Geneva courts in each of four trials. The Federal Supreme Court’s latest ruling addresses his challenge to the most recent conviction, including his claim that the proceedings breached his fair-trial rights.

The court also ruled that Sperisen could not derive a benefit from the acquittal of a person in Austria. Its decision follows a European Court of Human Rights finding that a judge had shown bias, which sent the case back to the Geneva Cantonal Court for a new hearing.

Geneva’s Cantonal Court set the sentence at 14 years in 2024, after the case returned to it following the European Court of Human Rights ruling in 2023. The human rights court had found that a judge showed bias. Geneva’s court then found Sperisen guilty of aiding and abetting murder and imposed a fresh sentence.

The ruling now upheld by Switzerland’s top court follows an earlier Geneva conviction. In 2018, the Cantonal Court sentenced Sperisen to 15 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder in seven cases. The later proceedings produced a 14-year term, which has now survived Sperisen’s appeal to the Federal Supreme Court.

The sequence shows how the European court’s finding prompted a new examination by the Geneva judiciary, while the latest appeal focused on whether the resulting proceedings respected Sperisen’s fair-trial rights. The Federal Supreme Court concluded that they did.

The case concerns deaths during a prison operation in Guatemala while Sperisen led the country’s National Police. He held the post of Director-General from 2004 to 2007. Several prisoners died during a police operation in a prison during that period, and Geneva courts later convicted him of aiding and abetting murder.

Sperisen holds both Swiss and Guatemalan nationality. He sought refuge in Switzerland with his family in 2007 and was arrested in Geneva in 2012. The proceedings have since returned repeatedly to Geneva’s courts, which have convicted him in each of his four trials.

The cross-border case has therefore been handled in Switzerland, where the Geneva judiciary examined the criminal charges and the Federal Supreme Court reviewed his appeal. The latest ruling keeps the Geneva Cantonal Court’s 2024 sentence in force.