Swiss Supreme Court: Calling someone a "dirty" or "lousy foreigner" isn't racism

Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that the Swiss Supreme Court ruled today that cursing people as "dirty asylum-seekers" or "lousy foreigners" cannot be considered racial discrimination. The ruling concerned the case of a police officer convicted of making such remarks who was merely fined as punishment.

The final verdict of the federal court in Lausanne overturned the previous verdict of a lower-instance court. The police officer made his remarks in 2007 in Basel while arresting an Algerian asylum-seeker on suspicion of pickpocketing.  

The officer did not refrain from cursing foreigners during the arrest, which was made in front of curious onlookers. The federal court, however, has come to the opinion that since the curses did not reference a specific nationality, race or religion, they do not meet the definition of racial discrimination. 

In Switzerland last year the number of foreign-born residents rose by another 3.4 % and is currently more than 1.88 million people, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office reported last week. That number constitutes more than 24 % of the population of the Alpine country, which exceeds eight million.

Two-thirds of all foreign-born inhabitants in Switzerland come from the EU or countries in the European Free Trade Association. During the second weekend in February this year, Swiss citizens voted in a referendum to support introducing numerous quotas for foreign-born workers, including those from the EU.