Facts
On 5 October 1996, a demonstration organized by the Intersquat association took place in the streets of Geneva. The protesters gathered at the Rive roundabout and invaded a vacant commercial building owned by UBS. Damage was caused inside the building. [B.], one of the protesters, admitted to participating in the demonstration and entering the building, but denied causing damage.
The Geneva Police Court convicted [B.] of trespassing and rioting to a sentence of 10 days' imprisonment with a 2-year suspended sentence. The Criminal Chamber of the Geneva Court of Justice upheld the decision on appeal. [B.] then filed a nullity appeal with the Federal Court's Criminal Division.
Considerations
The Criminal Division examined the conditions for applying Article 260 SCC, which punishes rioting. It recalled that a gathering is a meeting of a larger or smaller number of people that appears externally as a united force and is animated by a threatening state of mind for public peace. The Court also recalled that collective violence against people or property constitutes an objective condition of punishability.
The Court considered that the facts against [B.] constituted a riot within the meaning of Article 260 para. 1 SCC. It estimated that the gathering had been formed in public, that the violence committed against someone else's property was characteristic of the hostility shown towards owners who leave buildings unoccupied, and that [B.] had voluntarily participated in the gathering.
The Court also examined the issue of attributing preventive detention. It recalled that…