News of dropped investigation into cantonal government member revealed

In the elections which take place in less than a week’s time, the cantonal director of public safety, Beat Villiger of the CVP party, is hoping to be re-elected for a fourth term in office as a member of the cantonal government. Now, according to a report in the Republik online magazine, he has been subject to an investigation by the Lucerne prosecution service but which has since been dropped.

The case relates to a road traffic matter on Saturday 29 July 2017 when the police of the canton of Lucerne stopped the woman driver of a car who had had no valid licence since 2009; the car in question was registered under the name of Beat Villiger.

According to the law, knowingly allowing a person who has no licence to drive is punishable by a fine or up to three years’ imprisonment.

The headline of the article published in the online journal claimed that Villiger had tried to hinder the reporting of this incident, not least by taking out a court order to prevent detailed research and investigation by the newspaper. It was claimed he had contacted the journal several times wanting to know whether an article about him was to be published, and if so, whether would it be before the elections next Sunday.

The article claimed that, two days before the incident, Villiger, as a private individual, had enquired of the Lucerne police whether the person who was subsequently to drive his car had a driving licence, but for reasons of data protection, they were not able to.

According to this Republik article, the Lucerne police officer talking to Villiger on the telephone suggested a “half-way solution”, namely that Villiger should come and collect the car without delay, so no-one else would have to drive it. When Villiger subsequently asked the woman, a long-standing friend, whether she had a licence, she lied and said she had.

Then, four months later, on Saturday 18 November, in an incident unknown to Villiger at the time, the same car was again stopped by the Lucerne police, the same driver still not in possession of a licence.

Following the November incident, both Villiger and the driver were questioned by the Lucerne prosecution authorities, during which a document dated Wednesday 15 May 2017 was produced, showing that the woman had bought the car off Villiger for CHF 13,000, the handover of keys planned for the end of August, “proof”, therefore, that the driver of the car and not Villiger was the owner of the vehicle. If this document had been genuine, it would have meant Villiger had not been the owner of the vehicle on both occasions the woman had been found at the wheel with no licence. However, there was suspicion on the part of the Lucerne police that the document had been backdated to exonerate Villiger, and he was subsequently charged with falsifying a document.

While the Republik had mentioned this matter of the falsification of a document, it had not gone into detail as a result of the court order taken out by Villiger to prevent it.

As mentioned, after having considered the situation, the Lucerne prosecution authority dropped this case last February, after it was felt it was not likely to lead to any charges being made, concluding that Villiger’s trust had simply been misused, the Zug government member saying he had relied on the driver’s initial assurance such a matter would not a occur again.

As to the woman in question, it was reported she had since left the country.

Might all this have a deleterious effect on Villiger’s chances of being re-elected? It is thought this is unlikely as many voters will have already made their choices by post.

Reacting to the publication of the article, Villiger reiterated he had taken out the court order simply to prevent false accusations being spread about him.