ECHR rules against Switzerland for fining, arresting Roma woman

In 2014, authorities in Geneva fined a woman $563 for begging and arrested her when she was unable to pay.

The European Court of Human Rights has faulted Switzerland for imposing a heavy fine on a Romanian woman for begging and then arresting her when she could not pay. The ethnic Roma in her late twenties was fined 500 Swiss francs (464 euros, $563 at current rates) for begging on the street in Geneva in January 2014. When the woman, who is illiterate and has no job or welfare payments, failed to pay up, she was placed in temporary detention for five days.