Dick Marty

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Dick Marty (born January 7, 1945 in Sorengo) is a Swiss politician (Free Democratic Party) and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is member of the Swiss Council of States (since 1995), and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He is the Chairperson of its Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.

Marty holds a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel with the thesis: "The role and the power of the Swiss judge in the application of penal sanctions" (Le rôle et les pouvoirs du juge suisse dans l'application des sanctions pénales).

From 1972 to 1975 he was at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Law in Freiburg, Germany responsible for the section on Swiss law.

1975 he then was nominated state prosecutor of Canton Ticino on which post he was specially noted for his energetic activities fighting organized crime and drug abuse. For his achievements in the area of drug legislation, he received in 1987 an Award of Honor of the United States Department of Justice and a special award of honor by the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association. 1989 he was elected member of the executive of Canton Ticino where he was director of the finance department and in 1992 held additionally the office of president (rotating among the members). 1995, upon being elected to the Swiss Council of States for Ticino, he resigned from his executive post and is since working part-time as legal and economic consultant.

In the Council of States he has been member of key commissions like Finance Commission and Economy and Taxes Commission and took active part in getting the new Swiss constitution through the parliament.

Since 1998 he has been a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe where he is Chairperson of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and a member of the Monitoring Committee, and second vice-chairperson of the Political Affairs Committee, with further positions in several subcommittees. In 2005, Marty was appointed to lead an investigation by the Council of Europe into alleged illegal CIA secret prisons in Europe. Marty is planning to use satellite images and aviation logs - among many other sources of information - to find out whether the "rendition" of terror suspects for possible torture, or illegal secret detentions, have taken place in any of the Council of Europe's 46 member states. These activities could be a violation of European human rights standards. In June 2006 a report released by Marty on behalf of the Council of Europe announced that evidence showed that 14 European states had indeed assisted in the perpetration of such abuses.[1]

Besides his political work, he has been, since 1996, president of Tourism Switzerland; he is the president of the Swiss Scoutism Foundation.

Dick Marty is married and has three daughters.