External enquiry exonerates Lucerne Prosecution Service of any wrongdoing over Villiger case

Two external experts have reached the conclusion that the Prosecution Service of the Canton of Lucerne acted correctly in their deciding not to prosecute Zug government member and director of justice, Beat Villiger, after it had been alleged that, in 2017, he falsified documents relating to the sale of a car he owned which was found to have been driven in the canton of Lucerne by a women who had been banned, and with whom he had fathered a child illegitimately. In particular, the experts found the Lucerne Prosecution Service had not treated Villiger preferentially.

The enquiry, brought about by an unnamed private individual but known to be a member of the Social Democratic (SP) Party, was conducted by Ulrich Weder and Andreas Eckert, senior lawyers of the Prosecution Service of Zurich, the unnamed individual having suspected that Villiger, of the CVP party, had been given favourable treatment.

As Weder announced at a press conference, he and his colleague found that two members of the Lucerne Prosecution Service had acted correctly over the matter. There were no signs of any persons colluding to grant Villiger any special favour, or evidence of malpractice in the case, which was duly dropped. Furthermore, the Zurich experts exonerated members of the Lucerne Police Force also involved in the case.

The Zurich experts also came to the conclusion that the Lucerne authorities had acted correctly with regard to the allegations about the falsification of documents relating to the car (backdating a sale agreement to make it appear that Villiger was no longer the owner of the vehicle), as there was insufficient proof; hence this matter is now also settled.

Regular readers will recall that Villiger had tried to stop publication of this story in an online journal last October just days before the Zug cantonal government member was re-elected for a fourth term.

As might be expected, the exoneration of any wrongdoing has brought much relief to the employees of the Lucerne Prosecution Service, “who had been under enormous pressure”.

When contacted by a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung, Villiger expressed his satisfaction with the findings of the lawyers of the Zurich Prosecution Service but preferred not to comment further at this stage.

As of Wednesday 24 April, this whole matter is now deemed formally closed.

This article is based on one by Jasmine Kunz.