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Falciani said on Wednesday he would be willing to explain his
position to a court in another country, for example the European
Court of Human Rights.
"I won't do it in Switzerland where the conditions for a just
and fair trial are, in my opinion, not met," Falciani told a
news conference that was webcast from the French town of
Divonne-les-Bains near the Swiss border.
HSBC's Swiss unit has been in the spotlight since 2008, when
Falciani, a former IT employee there, fled Geneva with files
that were leaked to the media and are alleged to show evidence
of tax evasion by clients. French daily Le Monde has said it
identified more than 106,000 clients.
Falciani, who is based in France, is accused in Switzerland of
unauthorized acquisition of data, financial espionage and
violating Swiss bank and business secrecy rules.
He failed to appear at his initial Swiss hearing this month. The
trial is scheduled to resume next week and legal experts have
suggested he could be tried in absentia. There are no legal
proceedings against him in France.
(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz and Joshua Franklin; Editing by
Mark Heinrich)
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