Police officers back in court over death of Nigerian man

The original court verdict sparked protests Keystone / Valentin Flauraud

Six Lausanne police officers are back in court accused of causing the death of an arrested Nigerian man. The defendants were acquitted during their original court hearing last year.

Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here.

The Court of Criminal Appeal will sit in the cantonal courtroom of Longemalle in Renens. This highly anticipated appeal trial is once again followed by a significant number of parties, media and the public.

Mike Ben Peter, a 39-year-old Nigerian, died in February 2018 following a drug test in Lausanne. In June 2023, after four days of a sensational trial, the Lausanne Criminal Court ruled that the six officers who carried out the test could not be convicted of negligent homicide, following a decision by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“Multifactorial” causes

The judges referred in particular to the forensic expertise, which was not able to state with certainty that Mike Ben Peter had died because of police intervention or the method of restraining him.

The court of first instance therefore concluded that the cardio-respiratory arrest had occurred independently of the victim’s position, adding that the causes of death were “multifactorial” and that there were no “causal links” between the police intervention and the death of the Nigerian.

The Court also concluded that the police officers had not breached their duty of care. On this point, it departed from the prosecution, which had considered that the police officers had kept the victim on her stomach for too long.

Conversely, according to the lawyer for the victim’s family, the police officers used disproportionate violence. He has already mentioned several times that he would go as far as the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

“I will not give up”

This original acquittal led to virulent reactions. “Shame”, “It’s too easy”, people in the Renens courtroom shouted, while boos and slogans hostile to the police were then chanted outside. from the court, where some 100 people had gathered.

Mike Ben Peter’s widow and his brother were applauded as they left the court. “This is not fair at all. I want to get justice for my husband. I am a lioness and will not give up,” she said. Several sympathisers then invaded the court hall to shout their anger, a scene rarely seen in Switzerland.

The commander of the Lausanne municipal police Olivier Botteron, present in the audience, decided to turn back after leaving the court. Judges, lawyers, police officers who had been warned and some accompanying persons also left through the back. The slogans lasted at least 45 minutes before calm returned. The demonstration ended in a silent “sit-in”.

The appeal trial will continue until July 3. The verdict will be delivered a week later, on the afternoon of July 8.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].