A Swiss court has acquitted six police officers on Thursday in connection with the death of Mike Ben Peter in 2018, a case that has sparked discussions about structural racism in Switzerland.
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Il tribunale assolve la polizia svizzera per la morte di un nigeriano
The court ruling stated that the officers were not responsible for the fatal heart attack suffered by Peter, who passed away after being held down during an arrest. While acknowledging the tragic nature of the incident, the judge maintained that the evidence presented compelled the court to acquit the officers.
Defence lawyer Jean-Emmanuel Rossel, in an interview with Reuters during the week-long trial, argued that the experts’ opinion indicated that it was not the police intervention that directly caused the death.
However, Simon Ntah, the lawyer representing the victim’s family, deemed it an “insult to intelligence” to consider the death as merely an accident.
As the verdict was announced, supporters of the victim’s family expressed their disappointment and frustration, leaving the courtroom while shouting “shame” and “scandal”! Supporters held banners outside the court in Lausanne, reading “From the USA to Switzerland, the police kill”, in reference to the George Floyd case which took place in the United States who died after an officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes in 2020.
Mike Ben Peter, a 39-year-old Nigerian, suffered a fatal heart attack in 2018 after being kicked and held face-down in a street in Lausanne during the arrest. Initially charged with negligent homicide, the police officers had the charge dropped by the cantonal public prosecutor, who sought their acquittal.
In a report last year, a group of U.N. experts highlighted systemic racism in Switzerland, expressing serious concerns about the “excessive use of force and the expectation of impunity by police.” The report referenced this case and a government-mandated study that acknowledged the presence of structural racism in the country.
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