Swiss Canyoning Trial Reported - WWW.SWISSINFO.ORG

"CANYONING TRIAL": AN EXCLUSIVE SERVICE FROM WWW.SWISSINFO.ORG

Bern, Nov. 29/News Aktuell-AsiaNet/ --

From December 3 to 11, the long-awaited trial of eight members of the now defunct company, Adventure World, will take place in Interlaken, Switzerland. They are charged with manslaughter in connection with the deaths of 21 people in a canyoning accident near Interlaken in 1999. www.swissinfo.org will provide daily reports of the trial on its English language website www.swissinfo.org/sen

The defendants include three former members of Adventure World’s board of directors, two company managers and three guides. They are accused of ”culpable negligence?for going ahead with the canyoning expedition on July 27, 1999 even though a storm had broken over the area.

The defendants are charged with ignoring storm warnings, failing to have worked out a set of safety provisions and providing inadequate supervision and guide training.

The dead included 14 Australians, three Swiss, two South Africans, one New Zealander and one Briton. The special swissinfo canyoning trial site goes on line on November 29 with a series of articles and videos explaining the background. During the seven-day trial, journalists from swissinfo/Swiss Radio International (SRI) will file daily reports from Interlaken.

What does www.swissinfo.org offer?

www.swissinfo.org is a multimedia platform whose mission is to keep Swiss expatriates and foreigners with an interest in Switzerland informed. Accessible in nine languages (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese), it provides information on the events making the headlines in Switzerland and abroad. www.swissinfo.org also offers a wide range of other services, including electronic maps, the opportunity to receive information about Switzerland by e-mail (www.swisshelpdesk.org) and a free e-mail account (http://freemail.swissinfo.org).

ENDS

© Scoop Media