Eight decades after World War II, Switzerland on Monday repealed sentences that were handed out to 466 Swiss citizens who fought in the French Resistance.
The step, by the country’s parliament, was because Swiss military law bans citizens from serving in foreign armed forces.
Because of that rule, Swiss fighters in the French Resistance or the Italian Resistance in WWII were convicted – sometimes in absentia – and handed prison sentences or blocked from certain civil rights.
The parliament’s rehabilitation of the 466 was presented as symbolic, not opening the way to compensation.
The Swiss government in January had backed the repeal, saying it was to “honour the commitment by volunteers to freedom and democracy” – though indicating that the ban on fighting in foreign forces remained.
