Escort website is not a violation of Covid regulation
District Court of Zurich
Escort website is not a violation of the Covid regulation – there was a lack of clear laws
Switching on an escort website is not a violation of the Covid regulation. This was the conclusion reached by the Zurich District Court on Wednesday. It therefore acquitted a 62-year-old brothel operator.
As is well known, everything had to go quickly on March 16, 2020: The Federal Council tightened the measures against the corona virus. In addition to restaurants, clubs and hairdressing salons, erotic businesses were also sent into lockdown at that time.
The 62-year-old brothel operator, who was on trial on Wednesday, runs several businesses in the Zurich region and, according to his own statements, earns around one million francs a year.
Meet in the hotel instead of in the brothel
He shut down his operations immediately in March 2020, as he was told – but he continued to do business digitally. «Only the clubs close because there are too many people there. But nobody talked about escort, »he said in court.
“The Federal Council did not say that prostitution of any kind is prohibited.”
He forwarded the visitors of his brothel websites to his existing escort site, where clients can find prostitutes all over Switzerland. They don’t meet in a brothel, but at home or in a hotel. Threading, transport and accounting for the 62-year-old.
The moral police instructed him via Whatsapp to close the page immediately. But because he did not react, because he said he had not seen the WhatsApp, the police called him the next day and asked for it to be switched off immediately.
“Of course, I took the page down immediately. I didn’t know the forbidden war. ” He therefore demands a full acquittal.
“It’s not about looking at stamps”
For the prosecutor, however, “a clear case” dies. For violating the Covid Ordinance, he demanded a conditional fine of 60 daily rates of 1,790 francs, with a trial period of two years, as well as a fine of 10,000 francs.
At that time it was of course not possible for the Federal Council to list every single activity in this branch individually. “But except for phone sex, everything in this industry has physical contact,” said the prosecutor. It’s not about looking at postage stamps. Instead of being presented in a club, the women would simply be presented online.
Like hairdressers with house calls
The judge acquitted the brothel operator, however, according to the principle “No punishment without a clear law”. This “clear law” was missing at the time because everything had to go very quickly. “At first I wasn’t sure either what was allowed and what wasn’t,” said the judge.
As an example, he cited the confusion surrounding hairdressers who continued to think they could make home calls for a few days. “A hairdresser would hardly be charged here.”
The court came to the conclusion that the website alone was not a “publicly accessible facility”. The intrusion must therefore remain unpunished. The brothel operator now receives around 7,000 francs in compensation for his lawyer. The verdict is not yet legally binding. The public prosecutor’s office can still go to the higher and federal courts. (sda)