What if your bank account vanished overnight because of something you wrote? No trial. No crime. Just a decree. That is what happened to author Jacques Baud, a former Swiss colonel and intelligence analyst. Today, he can’t buy food or return home to Switzerland, but he has committed no crime and broken no law.
“All my credit cards were canceled; all my bank cards were blocked. That means there is no way to buy anything,” he told AUF1, which interviewed Baud.
In addition to his bank accounts and credit cards being frozen or canceled, he cannot be paid and therefore cannot work.
Baud cannot even accept gifts from friends or family, including food. He is also currently trapped in Brussels, as he is under a travel ban, meaning he cannot leave the country to return home to his family in Switzerland.
🇪🇺🔴What if your bank account vanished overnight because of something you wrote? No trial. No crime. Just a decree.
That is what happened to author Jacques Baud, a former Swiss colonel and intelligence analyst. Today, he can't buy food or return home to Switzerland. Not because… pic.twitter.com/QX8AL6kULA
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 9, 2026“I have not been allowed to travel within the EU since mid-December 2025. This means that I am not allowed to travel back to my home country. And if I were in my home country, which is Switzerland, I wouldn’t be able to go back to my house because I’m not allowed to. According to the sanctions, I am not allowed on EU territory. I cannot enter EU territory,” said Baud.
In essence, the EU can now financially execute dissenters with this sanctions tool. It was only after months that Baud won an exemption from the Belgian Ministry of Finance that allowed him access to the bare essentials, such as food.
Baud warns these same sanctions may be coming for dissidents across Europe in the coming years.
“What happens to me can happen to anyone tomorrow because there is no rule of law here. I have not committed a crime or violated any law, yet the sanctions were still imposed,” he said.
Notably, these sanctions have also been applied to German citizen and pro-Palestinian journalist Hüseyin Doğru, which has sparked intense political debate in Germany. Critics are describing the case as a “socio-economic death sentence” and a dangerous precedent for press freedom. He cannot buy diapers for his children and is facing eviction from his apartment due to the sanctions, which the German government has defended in its fight against “disinformation.”
Perhaps most notably, the Frankfurt am Main District Court in Germany has recently upheld a German bank’s decision to maintain the suspension of his accounts, meaning he has little legal recourse left in Germany.
In both cases, the unelected Council of the EU was behind the sanctions on Baud and Doğru. The Council accused Baud of “implementing or supporting actions or policies attributable to the Government of the Russian Federation which undermine or threaten stability or security in a third country (Ukraine) by engaging in the use of information manipulation and interference.”
Again, it is important to note that no criminal offense was alleged, and no judicial process was initiated. Baud and Doğru were simply punished by decree.
Baud says that since mid-December, he has been unable to go shopping and has survived only on food given to him by friends—an act that likely puts those friends in criminal jeopardy. Baud notes that even if he had engaged in propaganda — which he denies — there is “no law against propaganda.”
He maintains that he has no contact with Russia, has never received money from the Kremlin, and does not support Russian propaganda. Baud’s case is a worrying sign of where the EU is headed.
However, Baud has written and spoken about his belief that Ukraine brought about the Russian invasion itself in order to join NATO. He also questioned Russian responsibility in the Bucha massacre, asserting that it “could have been planned by the British intelligence services and implemented by the Ukrainian SBU.”
“That’s the crazy thing. People say I make Russian propaganda, but the majority, that is, 95 percent of my sources are from the West,” said Baud during his interview with AUF1 while referring to the books he has written on Russia and Ukraine.
Such opinions are also normally protected under freedom of expression laws built into the EU and its member states
As for claims that he is participating in “destabilization,” Baud contends that he has never done any such thing: “I have never done anything that could actually destabilize a country. By the way, imagine if one man could destabilize Europe. What then is the value of Europe? If that depends on one man.”
