Swiss court convicts Bern transport boss over dumped soil at Mitholz quarry

The ruling

On Tuesday, 10 November 2026, the Bern Economic Crimes Court sentenced the manager of a Bernese transport company to ten months in prison, suspended for a two-year probation period. He was found guilty of repeated forgery of documents and of property damage, and according to 20 Minuten the court also convicted him of fraud and qualified property damage. He was acquitted of the water pollution charge, because the court found no proof of groundwater contamination or of a link between the dumped material and the fish deaths in Blausee. The judgment was handed down at first instance. Prosecutors had asked for two years, suspended, while the defence requested a fine of 66 day-units at 110 francs, according to RTS.

What was dumped at the quarry

Between 2016 and 2017 the company took in slightly contaminated sludge and inert materials, partly from excavation work on the Lötschberg tunnel, and did not dispose of them properly in landfills. The material went instead to the Mitholz quarry near Kandergrund, a site that lies in a water protection zone and may only take uncontaminated excavation spoil. In total about 4,000 tonnes of category T and B material reached the quarry. During the trial the manager admitted declaring contaminated material as clean excavation in 139 cases, and the alteration of 25 delivery slips was not disputed, according to 20 Minuten. SRF notes that the quarry is not a landfill at all.

Fees, damage and the driving

Under the scheme the firm paid 9.50 francs per tonne at the quarry, whereas disposing of contaminated material would have cost 22.50 francs per tonne, according to 20 Minuten. Prosecutors put the illegal gain at about 90,000 francs, while 20 Minuten gives about 88,000 francs, and the two figures are reported separately in the sources.

Fee the firm paid9.5

Fee owed for contaminated material22.5

Fee the firm paid

9.5 CHF per tonne

Fee owed for contaminated material

22.5 CHF per tonne

Data from the article text

Investigation and remediation work cost the quarry operator about 835,000 francs, according to 20 Minuten, and SRF reports that prosecutors cited the same sum as damage to property value. In 29 cases the boss drove the trucks himself, and 110 other trips were made by drivers. Those drivers said he urged them to falsify delivery slips and change the stated origin of the sludge, and 13 of them had already received penal orders for forgery.

Remorse and the defence

During the hearing the manager said he had sometimes known there could be brick or concrete in the material, but he claimed he did not understand how serious the offence was, according to SRF. In 20 Minuten's account he expressed regret for what he had done and for what he had failed to do, and said he had never grasped how many people were affected. The defence argued that quarry staff should have noticed that material was being wrongly declared on arrival. The prosecution described a sophisticated system and considerable criminal energy, according to 20 Minuten.

The Blausee case and what comes next

The Blausee trout farm, a tourist site in the Bernese Oberland, has seen recurring fish die-offs since 2018, and its owners suspected that toxins from the quarry were responsible.

The court did not accept that link, and it referred any further damage claims to civil proceedings. The wider dispute, known as the Causa Blausee, has produced a tangled series of legal proceedings, and the ruling at first instance leaves the verdict open to further stages of the process.