The Best Friend – A Police Informant (Swiss Press Video 2019, by Florian Imbach) - Swiss Press Award
SRF Rundschau
Florian Imbach
For a young woman in the canton of Solothurn, the sudden death of her baby in the summer of 2010 marked the beginning of an ordeal spanning years. The department of public prosecution suspects child abuse and sees suspicions confirmed when a second child suffers trauma as a result of being shaken. To shed light on the cases, the father and mother are interrogated separately, their phone communications are intercepted and apartment bugged. But above all, covert investigators infiltrate the lives of the parents, who separate. An investigator befriends the woman, becoming her best friend – and disappears from one day to the next when the woman’s lawyer becomes suspicious. In 2018 the father is brought up on charges of deliberately causing the death of the child and the case against the mother is dropped. What remains, is an abiding mistrust of the authorities. In view of the many coercive measures which the Federal Supreme Court approved in this case, law professors warn of a “slippery slope”.
Interview with Florian Imbach
