RENENS: A Swiss appeals court confirmed Monday the acquittal of six police officers charged over the death of a Nigerian man, in a case that drew comparisons to George Floyd’s killing in the United States.

As with the lower court verdict a year ago acquitting the officers of negligent homicide in the case of Mike Ben Peter, Monday’s ruling sparked immediate protests and chants of “Shame!” outside the courthouse.

Around 80 people crowded outside the court in Renens outside Lausanne in western Switzerland, shouting: “Black lives matter!”, “Justice for Mike”, and “Police kill, the judiciary acquits!”

Ben Peter, 39, died following a violent arrest after he refused a police drug search near Lausanne railway station in early 2018.

In the encounter with the six police officers, he was pinned to the ground on his stomach. He died in hospital a few hours later after suffering a heart attack.

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His death initially received little attention, but the global outcry over Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020 placed a bigger spotlight on the Swiss case.

Expert testimony

During the first trial in June last year, a court in Lausanne ruled that the six officers involved could not be found guilty of negligent homicide.

The public prosecutor’s office also decided to drop the charges, referring in particular to forensic analyses that were unable to state with certainty that Ben Peter died due to the police intervention.

After three days of hearings last week at the cantonal appeals court in Renens, three judges confirmed the lower court ruling, acquitting the officers of negligent homicide.

They also acquitted them on additional charges of abusing their authority, brought by the lawyer of Ben Peter’s family, Simon Ntah.

Ben Peter’s family sat across the courtroom from the six defendants and their lawyers to hear the verdict, which took over an hour and 20 minutes to deliver in a packed courtroom.

As during the first trial, the judges relied heavily on forensic expert testimony to reach their conclusion.

They agreed with the conclusion reached by experts that it was impossible to say for certain that Ben Peter died due to the police intervention.

The judges also found that the officers had not violated their duty of care in a wrongful manner.

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“Mike must get justice, no matter what. We still move forward,” his widow Bridget Efe told reporters outside the court.

“They know that they did wrong. They know what they did.

“Killing my husband, making my children fatherless, and they will go home to their various homes and live happy with their children? Never.

“Justice will be served for my husband.”

Christian Favre, the lawyer for the first police officer who intervened with Ben Peter, said the court had put challenging questions to the defendants.

“The verdict which is rendered today – much more developed than the lower court verdict – is really a very strong confirmation of their acquittal,” he told reporters afterwards.

He said the defence lawyers were “relieved, happy, but not surprised” by the ruling, which he claimed was “strong, it is well reasoned, it examines all the points. And it is not rendered lightly”.

As they left the court building, defence lawyers were loudly booed by demonstrators who chanted “racist justice” and “shame on you”.