Arrested in Geneva: institutions, borders and finance

Who reaches this page from a Geneva situation

A family member has telephoned from Geneva, or been telephoned by an employer, a colleague or an organisation, to say that a person connected with an international body, a diplomatic mission or a bank has been detained. The family does not know whether the person has any special protection, who is entitled to speak for them, or which authority has acted.

Another reader is the person who lives in France or Italy and commutes to Geneva, who has been stopped at the frontier, questioned after a road incident or held after a dispute at work. For this person Geneva is a daily destination and not an unknown city, and the shock is that a familiar commute has turned into a criminal file under foreign rules.

A further reader works in finance or has an account in a Geneva bank, and has been contacted by an authority or told that a request for information, a freeze or an arrest is connected with events elsewhere. The case may come from another country, may begin with a request for assistance, and may have reached the person long after the events that gave rise to it.

Some readers are staff or family of an international organisation who assume that status protects them, and they want to know how far it extends. Most of them have been told something comforting by someone who did not check. This page begins from the opposite assumption: that status, if it exists, has to be established from documents, and that everything else proceeds normally in the meantime.

Decisions before anyone has checked your status

The earliest decision is whether to claim a protection you may have. Staff of international organisations and members of permanent missions may hold immunities of very different scope, some absolute, some limited to official acts, some that only the organisation itself can waive. Claiming a status you do not have, or claiming a wider one than you hold, can harm credibility and delay the process. Not claiming a status you do hold may waive an argument. The decision belongs to a lawyer who has seen the documents and, where relevant, the organisation's own legal service.

The next decision is whether to speak at all. Officers and prosecutors will offer the chance to give an account, and in a city used to international staff they may be courteous and efficient. What you say is recorded and used, and a statement made before your status is clear can undermine later arguments. Waiting for a lawyer costs you the appearance of cooperation and a longer day; speaking costs you control over a sentence that cannot be withdrawn.

A further decision concerns who to notify. If you work for an organisation or a mission, it may need to be told, and in some cases only the organisation can decide whether to waive an immunity. Informing the wrong person, or too many people, creates problems of its own. Decide with your lawyer who is told what, in writing, and in what order.

Finally, choose a single contact for the family and ask everyone else to hold back until the position is clear.

What to have ready for a case with a status question

Where status may matter, documents decide a great deal. Collect them, photograph rather than move originals and keep copies in more than one place.

• Identity papers and any accreditation, card or certificate issued by an international organisation, a mission or a host-state authority, scanned in full.
• Your employment or appointment papers: the contract, letter of appointment or notice of posting, and the name of the office that issued them.
• The name and contact details of the organisation's legal or security office, so that your lawyer can approach it properly.
• Every paper handed to you by the Swiss authorities, photographed whole and in its original language.
• The time and place of the arrest or stop, written down at once, with the names of officers you remember.
• Frontier and commuting papers if the case arose at the border: permits, vehicle documents, insurance and what you declared.
• Bank and account details if the case is financial, kept private and shared only with your lawyers, together with statements and correspondence with the bank.
• Any Italian or foreign paper connected to the matter, such as a summons, warrant or request for assistance.
• Messages and records from the period, saved in place and never edited.

List what is missing as well. A short honest list lets the lawyer decide what to establish first.

How a Geneva arrest changes ordinary life

For a member of staff of an international organisation, the consequences begin at work. The organisation may suspend duties, restrict access to premises or systems and open its own internal process, which runs separately from the Swiss case and under its own rules. Housing, schooling for children and residence status can depend on employment, so a family may face practical questions about all of them at once.

For a commuter across the French border, the arrest touches the daily journey. Release may come with conditions on movement, a requirement to report or an entry restriction, and each interacts with the routine of living in one country and working in another. An employer that learns of the matter may suspend work, and a permit that depends on employment may be at risk.

For a client of a private bank, the effects reach money and reputation. Accounts may be frozen or questioned, advisers may stop taking instructions and relatives with signing powers may be refused. A business that depends on banking relationships may find that its financial partners respond to the news before they know the facts.

For families in Italy, the case creates costs that are easy to underestimate: travel to Geneva, translation of papers, fees for a local lawyer and an Italian one, and weeks away from work. Write down early who pays for what, who holds the papers and who speaks to the employer and the bank, so that routine questions do not become crises.

Questions to put to a lawyer about status, border and money

These are questions that people outside the profession rarely think to ask, and the answers matter in a city where several systems meet.

• Do I hold any immunity, of what scope, and who decides whether it applies in this case?
• Does the organisation or mission need to be told, and could it waive anything without my agreement?
• Which authority has acted, and what stage has the file reached today?
• If the case began at the border, what exactly was said and recorded when I was stopped?
• If it is a financial matter, is it a Swiss file, a request from another country or both, and which accounts are affected?
• Is any request from Italy pending or likely, and what does extradition mean in my case?
• How will you work with a local lawyer, and who decides what is said to each authority?
• Can I work or cross the border while the case is open, and what might change that?
• What should my family tell my employer and my bank, and what should they avoid saying?

Ask again if an answer is unclear. A defender who explains the file, the options and the cost of each in words you can repeat to your family is showing you how the case will be run, and you should end every conversation knowing what comes next and who will do it.

Mistakes that status and money cases invite

Geneva produces particular errors. Avoid the following, and keep the reasons in mind.

• Do not assume your status covers private conduct. For most categories it does not, and relying on an assumption wastes the early hours.
• Do not announce a status you have not checked. A wrong claim damages credibility and may be treated as an attempt to avoid the process.
• Do not sign what you cannot read. A signature is taken as agreement to the text.
• Do not talk about the case with colleagues, officers or other detainees. None of them owes you confidentiality.
• Do not move money between accounts or across the border to protect it. It looks like hiding assets and can invite further measures.
• Do not contact the bank or advisers with explanations before your lawyer has seen the file. Written explanations become evidence.
• Do not post or message about the matter on social media or in group chats.
• Do not delete messages, files or accounts. It looks like concealment.

Each rule protects the same thing: your ability to choose, with advice, once you know what the file contains.

If you have already done one of these things, do not panic and do not try to repair it yourself. Tell your lawyer exactly what happened, in plain words and without softening it, so that the defence can take it into account before anyone else raises it. Concealing a mistake is worse than the mistake.

When Switzerland, Italy and further countries are all in view

A Geneva case often has several countries behind it. A person may work for an international body, live in France, bank in Geneva and hold documents issued in Italy. Each country has its own rules about what it will accept and in what form, and each may have an interest in the same facts. Early on, ask which countries are involved and which of them has actually acted.

Switzerland is outside the European Union, so the tools that work among member states do not apply in the same way. Surrender between Switzerland and Italy proceeds by extradition and evidence moves by mutual assistance, both slower and both leaving more room to object. That helps a defence and also prolongs uncertainty, so families should plan for a long process.

Documents are the first practical difficulty. Papers from Italy or another country that are to be used in Switzerland may need a certified translation and a formal certificate of authenticity, and papers issued in Switzerland that are needed elsewhere need the same. Ask relatives to find originals now. The post between countries is too slow for anything with a deadline, so scans go at once and originals follow.

Defenders must work together. The Swiss lawyer knows the local procedure; the Italian lawyer knows the Italian file; an adviser in the organisation's legal service knows the status question. They should agree on one account and divide the work. The consulate can confirm detention and pass messages, but it does not defend you.

How the studio takes instructions in a Geneva matter

Contact the studio by telephone or email using the details on this page. The Rome, Milan and Naples offices take the same calls, and conversations can be held in Italian or English. Say who is held or summoned, where, when, what papers exist, whether any status is claimed and whether an Italian measure is involved. If you cannot say, send photographs and we will read them and tell you what they are.

The studio does not replace the Swiss defender. A person held or investigated in Geneva needs a lawyer who can appear before the Swiss authorities, and the studio works with correspondents there. Our part is to explain to the family and the person concerned what is happening, to establish whether an Italian request exists or may follow, to coordinate with the Swiss defender, to prepare documents that can be translated and certified, and to handle the Italian side of the file.

The appointment is made in writing, signed by the person concerned or, where that is impossible, by a family member on their behalf, and fees are explained before work begins. The initial conversation is about facts and priorities, and we say plainly what depends on the authorities. Send documents as clear scans labelled by date, with a line saying what each is. We are reachable outside office hours for urgent developments, and we tell the family at each stage what has been done and what comes next.

The vocabulary of a Geneva file

A short vocabulary recurs in these cases. Knowing it makes the papers less alarming.

• Immunity. A protection from the host country's process. Its scope differs greatly: some absolute, some limited to official acts, some waivable by the organisation alone. It is established from the person's status and the governing instrument, not asserted informally.
• International organisations and permanent missions. The bodies whose staff may hold immunities. Which category a person belongs to decides what protection applies.
• Official acts. Conduct within the person's functions. Immunities limited to these do not cover private conduct.
• Waiver. The decision by the organisation to set aside an immunity. In some categories only the organisation can make it.
• Private banking. The business of managing wealth for individuals, which produces cases involving accounts, transfers and requests from other countries.
• Cross-border traffic. The daily movement across the French frontier, which produces cases about vehicles, goods and cash.
• The Swiss clock. The short period within which an application must be made and a court must decide, the same in Geneva as elsewhere in Switzerland.

If a word on your papers is not here, photograph it and ask. A word that looks familiar can mean something different in a Swiss file.