Swiss court to rule on police officers’ role in Black man’s death

A Swiss court is set to hand down a verdict on Thursday on six white police officers charged over a Black man’s death in a case that has raised questions about structural racism in Switzerland.
Mike Ben Peter, a 39-year-old Nigerian, suffered a fatal heart attack in 2018 after he was kicked and held face-down in a street in Lausanne during an arrest.
The prosecution has compared the case to that of George Floyd in the United States who died after an officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes in 2020.
The officers deny the charges of negligent homicide and are seeking their acquittal. Their lawyers dismiss any comparison with the Floyd case.
They each face a maximum sentence of three years in prison if convicted. Swiss privacy laws mean they cannot be named.