FAMILY TELLS OF GUNPOINT ARREST IN SWITZERLAND

Holiday ordeal prompts father to consider legal action after police aimed machineguns at Emirati parents’ heads over rental car wanted by authorities

An Emirati father and his family were stopped by police and held at gunpoint in Switzerland, before he and his wife were handcuffed in front of their children in a bizarre case of mistaken identity.

“Bu Hamad”, his wife and two sons, aged 4 and 6, found themselves surrounded by four police cars while driving between Zurich and Lugano on holiday last week.

Armed officers from the cantonal poli c e of Ticino took them into custody in what the family said was a terrifying few hours.

It later emerged that the family, who were on holiday in Austria and Switzerland, had rented an Audi that police were looking for.

“At first I thought it was because of a traffic violation but it was too aggressive,” said the father, 43, a senior financial officer for the Government who asked not to be identified.

“They stopped traffic on the highway and came to us with their machineguns. They were wearing special forces-style police uniforms.

“They pointed their guns at my head and my wife’s head. They were seven armed officers and they spoke to us in their language. I could not understand anything.”

Despite thinking it must have been a mistake, he realised the situation was serious.

“So I told my wife, ‘Just do as they tell you, whatever they ask you. Answer them, don’t resist and don’t be aggressive’.”

“They pulled me and my wife out of the car, handcuffed us and made us stand on the street in the rain. They were shouting at us in Italian, I think, and they were very rude and aggressive.”

Then one of the officers spoke to him in broken English and explained to him that he was accused of “this and that”.

“They inspected me in the street in front of everyone. Then they asked me about the car, where I rented it from and when.”

He told them that he rented the vehicle on August 3 in Austria. He later discovered that police had been looking for the car since July.

“I told them I want to call my embassy they said, ‘Not now’. I was confident that there was a mistake, so I told them to get it over with.”

The police were asking questions while on the phone to their headquarters. They then took the family to a police station in Bellinzona, Ticino.

During the ordeal, Bu Hamad’s young sons became hysterical, he said, so a policewoman drove his car with his wife and the children, and he rode in the police car.

When they reached the station, they took his documents and car papers.

“After they took everything they said, ‘There has been a misunderstanding’. After they finished the questioning, they apologised to us.”

Lulzana Musliu, a spokeswoman for Switzerland’s federal office of police said that the family’s detention was a mistake. “The persons in the car were not searched for by police but the vehicle was,” Ms Musliu said.

“This was due to hints of a possible threat. That’s why the people in this car were stopped and controlled. As it turned out, they were not the persons we were looking for. They just happened to rent the car.”

After the incident, the Emirati father raised the issue with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the UAE Embassy in Switzerland.

“The incident occurred on Thursday, so we are still following up through our embassy in Switzerland,” a spokeswoman said.

“But we need to highlight the fact that any person has the right to contact his or her embassy right away – not be made to wait until they reach a police station.”

The ministry has raised the issue with Switzerland’s department of foreign affairs.

The spokeswoman said that officials were aware of the “emotional damage the two children suffered”.

Bu Hamad said he asked the embassy to recommend a lawyer while he considers legal action.

“They aggressively stopped us in public and in front of our children,” he said. “It was unnecessary to use this excessive force.”

He said that his children had become uneasy around police.

“We were sitting by the lake and they saw two officers walk by, and they freaked out and yelled, ‘They will come to take us now’,” Bu Hamad said.

During the ordeal, Bu Hamad’s young sons became hysterical