Brussels, 03/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Court of Human Rights, Jean-Paul Costa, said on Tuesday 1 December that it would not be easy to appeal to the Court of Human Rights against the Swiss referendum result banning the building of minarets in Switzerland. He said that the minaret referendum was a new conundrum for the Court of Human Rights, which has never had to rule against a referendum. Anyone wishing to take a case to the court in question would first have to exhaust all the legal options available in Switzerland, but Swiss federal courts are not authorised to challenge the results of a referendum. In other words, such a case would be a highly complex legal problem, added Costa, saying that he was only commenting on whether such a case could be heard by his court, not about the merits of any such case. Complainants would have to prove that the minaret ban constituted a violation the European Convention of Human Rights. (B.C./transl.fl)