Police stand trial in 'Switzerland's George Floyd' case

A courtroom in the Swiss municipality of Renens on Monday heard allegations against six police officers accused of "homicide through negligence."

The case, concerning the death in 2018 of 39-year-old Nigerian Mike Ben Peter, has been compared with that of George Floyd in the United States.

What we know about the death

According to the indictment, Ben Peter did not comply with police requests during a drug patrol after he had collected a bag later shown to contain marijuana.

The officers deployed pepper spray and used knee kicks to the ribs and crotch to force him on the ground and handcuff him.

The prosecution says Ben Peter was held face-down by several officers for three minutes.

He had continued to struggle but then appeared to be unconscious and was pronounced dead after a heart attack with multiple causes, including the fact that he was held on his stomach.

Each officer faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison if convicted. 

Citing the case last year, UN experts highlighted systemic racism in Switzerland in a report that underlined concerns about "excessive use of force and the expectation of impunity by police."

What has happened so far in court?

The judge opened the trial by saying that it was a "painful case" and urging those watching the proceedings, including Ben Peter's widow and brother, to remain calm.

The lawyer for Ben Peter's family, Simon Ntah, said the position in which he was held was comparable to the one used on George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis in 2020.

Ntah said the hold had "ultimately provoked a heart attack" and told the court that to consider the death as an accident was an "insult to intelligence."

The prosecution lawyer said Ben Peter was one of four Black men who had died during police interventions in Vaud canton, where Renens is situated, since 2016.

He showed the court a pixelated photograph of one officer, giving a thumbs-up sign next to a piece of graffiti that read "RIP Mike."

However, according to the Reuters news agency, the defense said the comparison with George Floyd, who died after an officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, was unfair.

The defense also questioned the reliability of witnesses who described the arrest. They included one individual who the defense maintained was short-sighted and saw the event from a high balcony.

Unlike Floyd's killing, for which officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in 2021, there is no cellphone footage of the incident.

Scores of people were present for the highly-anticipated hearing, the Le Quotidien Jurassian newspaper reported, with politicians and the commander of police from the nearby city of Lausanne among them.