Former cantonal parliamentarian summoned to appear before criminal court

It has been announced that a date has been set on which former cantonal parliamentarian Jolanda Spiess-Hegglin is to appear at Zug criminal court on charges of slander and defamation of character with regard to fellow cantonal parliamentarian Marcus Hürlimann, whom she accused of having spiked her drink so he could take advantage of her.
 
Spiess-Hegglin, a former member of the Green Alternative Party who later changed her allegiances to the Pirate party, faces the charges after insisting Hürlimann had spiked her drink, even after he had been exonerated. The alleged incident took place following a party to celebrate the appointment as Heinz Tännler as head of the cantonal government in December of 2014. She had gone to hospital the following day complaining of pains in the abdomen but, according to doctors, the symptoms she described were not those typically associated with having been drugged through a spiked drink. Further details of charges against her are not being divulged prior to the hearing itself.
 
What is of note in this case is that judges at the supreme court in Zurich will await the outcome of this Zug hearing as this could have a bearing on a case they are considering in relation to Philip Gut, a journalist of the renowned Swiss weekly Weltwoche magazine. He has already been given a conditional fine by a Zurich regional court after he wrote that Spiess-Hegglin had just thought up this story about a spiked drink to cover up an affair she was having. Should the Zug court find Spiess-Hegglin guilty, then the Zurich court would have to look at the case in a new light.
 
As for Hürlimann, a court ruled that he had no case to answer; hence he was totally exonerated. He did admit to making advances at Spiess-Hegglin, though she did not reject them.
 
The incident dominated the local press in the early weeks of 2015 and was widely reported in the national press, too.