Graubünden Public Prosecutor's Office backs down
For years there have been indications that the militant and misguided attitudes within Mario Cavigelli's department are exerting influence over all institutions or keeping them expensively occupied.
One can repeatedly witness first-hand how politicians spread untruths even during votes and elections.
Although deeply frustrating, such false statements are in principle permissible in day-to-day politics and apparently not relevant under criminal law.
In the Department of Construction, Transport and Forestry under the leadership of Mario Cavigelli, the Office for Hunting and Fisheries of Graubünden has for some time — particularly under the now retired head of office Georg Brosi — and Hannes Jenny exhibited serious, and in some cases criminally relevant, failings. This is no secret.
As a neutral observer, one cannot help but notice dictatorial, illegal, arbitrary, and undemocratic machinations within this Department of Construction, Transport and Forestry.
The numerous negative media reports and personal experiences over many years of a “good-old-boys” mentality, sloppiness, disrespect, and arrogance — including at the public prosecutor's office in Graubünden — are testament to this. A Graubünden speciality, one might say: shielding those of their own kind. The justice system in Graubünden doesn't even stir when hobby hunters shoot at tourists or threaten them with a weapon.
Graubünden culture and tradition
Setting aside Valais and the canton of Zurich, the remaining 23 cantons combined do not come close to matching the number of irregularities in cantonal hunting affairs found in the canton of Graubünden. Year after year, for example, over 1’000 local hobby hunters in Graubünden are reported to authorities and/or fined.
There is no doubt that State Councillor Mario Cavigelli (CVP) has repeatedly lied to everyone in connection with the matter to which the criminal complaint filed on 18.12.2017 by IG Wild beim Wild relates. And yet the public prosecutor's office (Claudio Riedi) of Graubünden once again sees no need for action, as it informed IG Wild beim Wild in its letter of 17.4.2018.
The concealment of relevant information by State Councillor Mario Cavigelli has not only caused considerable material damage to the special hunting initiative committee of the hobby hunters, but also to the association Wildtierschutz Schweiz (costs of legal representation, etc.). Through the immoral conduct of Mario Cavigelli (CVP), taxpayers' money belonging to the people of Graubünden was also misused.
The violent and dishonest lobbying by hobby hunters (reaching as high as Mario Cavigelli's department) in politics, business, the judiciary, and elsewhere includes the practice of pressuring local Graubünden newspapers (print shops) by threatening to withdraw printing contracts if they accept advertisements critical of hunting. Critical letters to the editor are frequently not published by Graubünden media. At the HIGA trade fair in Chur, in the recent past, contractual agreements were broken and sabotaged under pressure from the same militant hobby hunting circles, again resulting in costs and losses for the organisers as well as for the association Wildtierschutz Schweiz.
The Construction Cartel
A new story is emerging to match: how a construction cartel operated in Graubünden, how building contractors, allegedly with the tacit approval of the authorities, are said to have defrauded the public sector and private clients of hundreds of millions of francs over decades – in the largest case of price-fixing in the Swiss construction industry.
In the coming months, by summer 2018, WEKO will also conclude the major investigations. It is already clear: all major firms in Graubünden were involved.
On 19 February 2018, IG Wild beim Wild published a further article documenting illegal dealings within the Department of Construction, Transport and Forestry under Mario Cavigelli.
Excerpt:
Although a Federal Court ruling has been in place since April 2015 stipulating that ornithological associations such as Birdlife Graubünden must be granted the right to object to the shooting of protected birds, the Graubünden Office for Hunting and Fishing continued to ignore this Federal Court ruling even in 2016, allowing a further 49 grey herons to be shot in the canton in 2016 alone (Switzerland-wide, there were a total of 51 grey heron killings). And notably, without Birdlife Graubünden ever having received a formal notice! The data for 2017 has not yet been made public.
Further Examples
According to the Graubünden Administrative Court, last winter's temporary shooting permit for two young wolves from the Calanda pack was disproportionate.
Or the Graubünden cantonal government is demanding changes from the federal government — under pressure from militant hobby hunters — as part of the revision of the federal hunting law. Specifically, it seeks to restrict environmental organizations' right to have a say in hunting matters. WWF Switzerland disputes this with figures — in 2015, over 90% of appeals were successful.
In September 2017, the association Wildtierschutz Schweiz also filed a further criminal complaint with the Graubünden public prosecutor's office, for failure to prevent offences against the hunting law and complicity in endangering life and limb. Further charges include complicity in the deliberate poaching of a protected species by a hunter, and complicity in contaminating an area of national conservation significance with lead ammunition.
