Swiss court: teen pranks not grounds to deny naturalisation

Teenage pranks like egg‑throwing are no reason to deny a Swiss passport, an Aargau court has ruled, as it upheld an Eritrean woman’s appeal against a naturalisation refusal. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The young woman appealed after the Aargau naturalisation commission rejected her application, justifying its decision on the grounds that the applicant had been convicted during the naturalisation procedure. At the age of 15, she had thrown eggs at the front of a house with other young people and had taken part in a prank known as the "doorbell prank", which involved ringing all the doorbells in a building. The juvenile court sentenced her to a warning, according to the ruling published on Monday. According to the administrative court, the Aargau committee's opinion was not compatible with either Swiss law or the Constitution. A conviction for an offence does not automatically exclude naturalisation. The court added that the committee must take into ...