Swiss Politician Who Blamed Immigrants for Sex Crimes Indicted for Sexually Abusing Foreign Teenager

A Swiss right-wing politician who claimed that immigrants were responsible for an increase in sex crimes has been indicted on charges of repeatedly sexually abusing foreign minors and others.

According to local media outlets such as the German weekly Der Spiegel on the 22nd (local time), prosecutors in Aargau, Switzerland, recently indicted Patrick Frey, 57, a former member of the Aargau cantonal parliament, on charges including child sex crimes, and requested the court to sentence him to life imprisonment.

Frey is accused of habitually raping three victims—his Polish cohabitant, her daughter, and his ex-wife—before his arrest in September 2023.

Investigations revealed that he drugged the cohabitant's daughter and other victims, who were 14 to 15 years old at the time, to render them unconscious before committing the crimes.

Although the unconscious victims could not specifically remember the acts, investigative authorities determined based on video footage recording the crimes that the underage victim was subjected to sexual abuse for at least 40 hours.

They also applied attempted murder charges, considering that the victims could have died from the drugs.

The defendant was active as a member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) until right before his crimes were uncovered and he was imprisoned.

Der Spiegel reported that he had blamed foreigners for sex crime issues in parliament and, just before his arrest, had signed a motion demanding harsher punishments for child sex offenders.

The Swiss People's Party is a right-wing populist party that advocates for hardline immigration policies.

During the national referendum held last June over whether to limit Switzerland's population to 10 million or fewer, the party also campaigned for 'yes', claiming that the rate of sex crimes among immigrants was high.

The referendum was voted down with 45 percent in favor and 55 percent against.

The victim mother and daughter met the defendant while on vacation in 2021 and began living together at the defendant's home starting the following year.

Although the mother was a housekeeper on paper, she never received a salary.

Swiss immigration authorities determined that they had entered into a false contract to obtain residency permits and ordered them to pay a fine of 2,160 francs (approx. 3.9 million KRW) and leave Switzerland.

(Photo: Getty Images)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.