Marco Camenisch (born 21 January 1952) is a Swiss

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

and

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

Biography

Early life

Camenisch was born on January 21, 1952, in Campocologno, Switzerland and raised in a middle-class home in canton Graubünden.

Activism

In the late 1970s, Camenisch was involved in local opposition to the

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

industry. In Switzerland, as in other countries, the movement against nuclear power plants utilized tactics of

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

: cutting down electrical pylons,

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

against power stations, and actions against leaders of the nuclear industry. On Christmas eve of 1979, Camenisch with René Moser sabotaged a power station belonging to NOK (Nordostschweizer Kraftwerke) at

Bad Ragaz Bad Ragaz is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Sarganserland in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is the home of a famous natural spring and is a popular spa and health resort destination. History Bad Ragaz is fi ...

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

with explosives, destroying two

transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

and a power pole. The pair were arrested for the sabotage in January 1980 and after spending a year free on bail, the court of Canton in

Chur , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Churwalden, Tschiertschen-Praden, Domat/Ems, Felsberg, Malix, Trimmis, Untervaz, Pfäfers , twintowns = Bad Homburg (Germany), Cabourg (France), Mayrhofen (Austria), Mondorf-les-Bains (Luxembourg), ...

and Graubünden sentenced Camenisch to 10 years in prison.

Escape

In December 1981, he escaped from

Regensdorf Regensdorf is a municipality in the district of Dielsdorf District of the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the biggest city in the region Furttal (ZH). Katzensee is a lake that also includes the bath/lido Strandbad Katzensee on the border ...

prison near

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, along with 5 other prisoners. During the melée a prison guard was shot and killed, and another was seriously injured. Camenisch claimed he hadn't been part of the group which committed the shootings. After the escape he spent 10 years in hiding. In 1989, Swiss federal police and media claimed he was responsible for the killing of Swiss border police officer Kurt Moser at Brusio.

Arrest in Italy

On November 5, 1991, Camenisch was stopped by

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...

on Cinquale di Montignoso road, along with fellow anarchist Giancarlo Sergianpietri. Camenisch produced a handgun and opened fire, wounding one of the soldiers. In the ensuing shootout, he was wounded in one leg and arrested. Two guns and six rudimentary bombs were found at his place. He was taken to

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

hospital, where he remained for six months, and later at San Vittore prison infirmary in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. The

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Court of

Massa Carrara The province of Massa-Carrara ( it, provincia di Massa-Carrara) is a province in the Tuscany region of central Italy. It is named after the provincial capital Massa, and Carrara, the other main town in the province. History The province of "M ...

sentenced him to 12 years for assault and sabotage of electrical pylons. He served 9 of those years while in

solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...

in a maximum-security prison.

Extradition to Switzerland

In April 2002, Camenisch was extradited to Switzerland and transferred to a prison in Pfäffikon near Zürich. In January 2003, after a hunger strike against the conditions of imprisonment he was suffering, he was transferred to a prison in

with better conditions. In 2002 the Swiss government transferred him back to Pfäffikon. In July 2004 he was sentenced to seventeen years in prison for the murder of Kurt Moser. In November 2006 the Federal Supreme Court nullified this sentence on the basis that the sum of the two prison terms would exceed the maximum of twenty years set by Swiss law. On 13 March the sentence was therefore reduced to eight years. Camenisch has maintained his political beliefs during his time in prison, and he has remained a political activist. He was freed from prison on 10 March 2017, after 26 years.

Biography

Early life

Activism

Escape

Arrest in Italy

Extradition to Switzerland

See also

References

Further reading