Swiss police conduct checks on cars at the entrance of the Cointrin airport in Geneva, Switzerland July 27, 2016. Authorities later determined called in a fake bomb threat to keep her husband from flying. (Reuters)
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But that’s no excuse for endangering the lives of thousands of travelers.
A French woman, whose name has not been released, now faces up to six months in prison for calling in a fake airport bomb threat to keep her husband from flying to see his mistress.
On Tuesday, French and Swiss police initiated a major scale up of security at Geneva’s Cointrin airport, that included extra security checkpoints, ID checks and the blockage of several entrance points after receiving an anonymous bomb threat. Hours of tightened security caused massive traffic delays around the airport, according to Reuters. But by late Tuesday, authorities were able to trace the number that placed the bomb threat to Annecy, France, a town about 28 miles from Geneva.
Police raided the address and, upon discovering the woman at home, determined the bomb threat to be a false alarm.
But the woman, who has been married for 22 years, admitted in a French court on Thursday that she called in the threat to keep her husband from flying to see his alleged mistress. She said she “did not think about the consequences when she phoned in a false bomb threat," according to news agency Swiss Info.
Her husband, who showed up at the trial with two of the couple’s children, denied he was having an affair.
Prosecutor Eric Maillaud recommended a six-month prison sentence, alleging the woman’s false bomb threat had cost the airport and local authorities hundreds of thousands of euros, as well as inconvenienced some 13,000 travelers that day. The court ruled the wife must serve at least three months in prison for the hoax gone awry.
European law enforcement agencies have been ramping up security in the wake of recent terrorist attacks throughout the continent. Switzerland’s security agency Federal Intelligence Service said the recent terrorist attacks in France and Germany “show the growing risk of violent incidents in Europe."
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