Docu links former chocolate plant head to student beatings

A Swiss chocolate brand has been dragged into a student abuse scandal prompting a film festival organizer to end partnership with the company.

The Zurich Film Festival announced late Saturday that it had agreed with Laderach to end a partnership, adding that a documentary aired days earlier on the abuse allegations had "shaken everyone."

The documentary aired by Swiss public broadcaster SRF last week alleged that children at the Evangelical school in Kaltbrunn, in the eastern canton of St. Gallen, had been systematically beaten.

The school was founded in 1995 by Jurg Laderach, the former head of the chocolate maker, and according to the documentary, he stands accused of himself administering beatings, something he flatly denies.

His son, Johannes Laderach, took over the helm of the company in 2018, and ZFF acknowledged that no accusations had been made towards the current leadership.

But, it said, "the suffering of the presumed victims is nonetheless associated with the name of the family and the business."

WITH AFP