6 Swiss policemen stand trial over death of a Black man, died while being arrested for marijuana

Six Swiss police officers appeared in a court on Monday, facing charges related to the death of a Black man who suffered a fatal heart attack after being restrained during an arrest.

The case has drawn comparisons to the death of George Floyd in the United States, according to one lawyer.

The officers, all of whom are white, are accused of “homicide through negligence” in relation to the 2018 death of Mike Ben Peter, a 39-year-old Nigerian man, in Lausanne.

They maintain their innocence and claim that other factors caused his death. Their legal representatives have rejected any parallels with Floyd’s case, where an officer knelt on his neck for over nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis in 2020.

What happened?

According to the indictment, the officers initially noticed Ben Peter during a drug patrol when he was found in possession of a bag containing marijuana.

The indictment stated that Ben Peter did not comply with the police’s requests, leading the officers to use pepper spray, knee kicks to the ribs and crotch, in an attempt to subdue and handcuff him.

As per the indictment, Ben Peter continued to resist while being held face-down by multiple officers for three minutes until they realized he was unconscious.

The indictment further revealed that Ben Peter later died due to a heart attack with multiple contributing factors. These factors included being held on his stomach, subjected to stress, and his obesity.

The aftermath

Ben Peter’s death has sparked protests from activists who accuse the Swiss police of institutional racism, an allegation denied by the police force.

During the trial’s opening, the judge acknowledged the sensitivity of the case and urged those present, including Ben Peter’s widow and brother, to remain calm.

Simon Ntah, the lawyer representing Ben Peter’s family, argued in court that considering the death as accidental would be an “insult to intelligence.”

He drew a comparison between the position in which Ben Peter was held and the circumstances surrounding George Floyd’s death, claiming that it had ultimately led to a heart attack.

Ntah further highlighted that Ben Peter was one of four Black men who had died during police interventions in the Vaud canton since 2016.

As evidence, he presented a photo of an officer, with his face obscured, giving a thumbs-up gesture next to graffiti that read ‘RIP MIKE.’

The defence lawyer, Juliette Perrin, rejected the comparison to Floyd’s case, while two other defence lawyers raised doubts about the credibility of witnesses who described the arrest.

One lawyer, Odile Pelet, argued that one witness had poor eyesight and observed the incident from a high balcony, making them unreliable.

If convicted, each officer faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison. However, their names cannot be disclosed at this stage of the proceedings due to Swiss privacy laws.

In a report last year, a group of U.N. experts highlighted systemic racism in Switzerland and expressed serious concerns about the “excessive use of force and the expectation of impunity by police.” This case was cited as an example in the report.

A government-commissioned study acknowledged the structural nature of the problem and acknowledged that the measures taken so far have been insufficient.

(With inputs from agencies)

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