Swiss target German tax officials

[Franzl]

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news_digest/Arrest_of_German_tax_officials_demanded.html?cid=32396400

The Swiss authorities have ordered the arrest of three German tax officials, accused of taking part in the purchase of a CD of stolen bank data that was sold to authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia.

[politicus]

Mixed feelings about the whole thing. Law enforcement officers buying stolen property is not a good thing. On the other hand tax evasion is so rampant in many countries it undermines their entire welfare system, and the Swiss "bank snitches" are doing the rest of Europe a favour (even though the dirty money will just be hidden somewhere else).

[ZuWo]

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble considers the decision of the Swiss authorities understandable:

"Die Schweiz hat ihr Strafrecht und in der Schweiz ist die Verletzung des Bankgeheimnisses mit Strafe bedroht."
(Switzerland has its own penal law and in Switzerland the violation of bank secrecy is punishable)

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wirtschaft/konjunktur/Schweizer-Haftbefehl-gegen-deutsche-Steuerbeamte/story/20132412

[Middle-aged Europe]

^^^

I guess Germany still won't extradite anyone, because those officials were merely, um, executing policy of the Northrhine-Westphalian state government.

(And I see the slippery slope... because a similar thing could be said about CIA officials who were torturing terrorist suspect.)