Excerpt:
A man charged last year with promoting al Qaeda propaganda has been refused a firearms permit, in a ruling by Switzerland’s highest court which he said was driven by anti-Muslim discrimination.
Nicolas Blancho, chairman of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS), sought permission in 2014 to own a SIG Sauer P226 pistol. His bid was rejected, first by police and military officials and later by a Bern court, documents show.
In Blancho’s appeal, he contended the lower court had failed to appropriately weigh his private interests in obtaining a firearms license to protect himself and his family against the public’s interest in denying him access to a legal weapon.
In their rejection, a three-judge panel of the Swiss Federal Tribunal concluded his appeal failed to address the legal basis of the lower court’s decision and instead resorted to general criticisms that it could not consider.