The police were looking for Eric Weber this morning before the Basel parliament session. There is suspicion of electoral fraud. He was back in the High Council in the evening.
Eric Weber last appeared in criminal court two years ago. At that time he was convicted of racist and sexual videos.
Basel police were waiting for Councilor Eric Weber in front of the town hall on Wednesday morning and took him away, as members of parliament noted. Weber was on his way to the General Council meeting, where he represented the small “People’s Action” party. At the same time, another person was arrested on the “People’s Action” electoral list.
The Chancellor of the State had previously received information about possible irregularities in the voting. She forwarded this to the public prosecutor’s office and filed a complaint. “The Criminal Investigation Department of the Basel-Stadt public prosecutor’s office is currently investigating the exact facts. In this context, she arrested two people, a sitting councilor and a candidate listed on the same electoral list,” says Martin Schütz, spokesman in the Basel public prosecutor’s office. “The arrest was made so that these people could be questioned. The presumption of innocence with both.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Weber was out again and sitting in the General Council chamber. This time his arrest lasted only a short time.
Convicted several times already
Time brings memories of past election campaigns. In 2012, Weber was arrested twice on suspicion of interfering with voting rights. After the second incident, the court imposed mandatory pre-trial detention until the polls closed on election Sunday.
Four years earlier, Weber was convicted of these crimes, among other things. After the 2012 elections, the Basel criminal court also convicted him of electoral fraud. Weber’s ploy was very similar in all cases: he encouraged mostly elderly people to put his party list in the election cover. At first he even stole election envelopes to get extra votes.
Weber was last in court two years ago. Back then it was about racist and sexist hate videos. Because of this he was convicted of multiple counts of racial discrimination, defamation and insults.