In early April, federal judge Yves Donzallaz found something strange in the hedge in front of his home in the Valais: a hidden camera facing directly toward the entrance of his home. He immediately reported her to the police and handed over the device.
The matter could have turned into a simple crime of illegal surveillance. But the story has a lot more depth. Weeks earlier, the German weekly Weltwoche had published an article revealing a sentimental relationship between Donzallaz and fellow federal judge Beatrice van de Graaf. An important detail: Swiss federal law prohibits two Federal Court judges from sharing a “community of enduring life,” precisely to ensure the court's independence. The two magistrates acknowledged the relationship but said it had ended before the revelations. An external investigation was opened.
The Weltwoche claimed to have "visual evidence" of the two living together. Now that the existence of the camera is known, the question everyone is asking is the same: those images, where exactly did they come from?
The political background doesn't simplify anything. Donzallaz was elected federal judge under the acronym of the UDC in 2008, but he distanced himself from the party over the years until leaving it in 2022. The journalist who published the revelations is a former national deputy of the UDC. The editor of the weekly, Roger Köppel, is a well-known figure in the same vein. No one has formally established a link between the camera and the posts. But the question is already there.