The appeal trial of six Lausanne police officers, acquitted at first instance in the case of the death of Mike Ben Peter, began on Monday. The victim’s family’s lawyer requested that he be remanded to have time to examine additional expert opinions.
Before getting to the heart of the matter before the Court of Appeal of the Cantonal Court, relocated to Renens, Me Simon Ntah made several requisitions while once again sharply calling into question the investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. He said she was “a calamity” and “rotten”. “To say that it was serious and carried out diligently is heresy,” he claimed.
As in the first instance, the plaintiff’s lawyer particularly criticized a “botched” neighborhood investigation, possible collusion between the police officers and “inconsistent” forensic examinations to determine the exact causes of Mike Ben Peter’s death.
>> Details from Fabiano Citroni in the 12:45 p.m.:
“Aggravation of the accusation”
He again submitted to the judges “an aggravation of the accusation”. While the Public Prosecutor retained the homicide by negligence, Me Ntah wants the Court of Appeal to also examine the legal qualifications of simple bodily harm, abuse of authority and especially homicide by dole eventual. Namely for the latter, that the police officers would have been aware that they were taking a risk and that they would have accommodated themselves to it.
Me Ntah also wants the Court to hear and confront the two Swiss experts who established the two reference medico-legal expertises in this case, deemed “inconsistent” in certain conclusions by the lawyer. He also requests that two renowned American experts be heard, explicitly concluding that Mike Ben Peter died due to the violent actions of the police.
Finally, the lawyer made a third request, that of having more time to analyze additional Swiss expert opinions, one of which was filed just twelve days ago. Clearly, he is therefore asking for the trial to be postponed to a later date.
“Finally getting closer to the truth”
Me Ntah recalled his “disappointment and incomprehension” of the first instance judgment. “The facts were poorly examined, the court refused to think, it did not ask all the possible questions. It did not follow through.”
>> Read: Mike Ben Peter’s family appeals after acquittal of six police officers
“I ask you to have the courage to shed all the light and ask yourself all the questions about the facts,” he told the three judges. Accepting his requisitions would be equivalent to “finally getting closer to the truth”, according to him.
The six lawyers for the police officers have each rejected all the requests, starting with the request to postpone the trial. They have discredited the private expert reports, which they deemed “inadmissible”, citing two “American champions with strong reputations for denouncing police violence”. They have pointed out that the two medical reports in the file were thorough and complete.
For his part, prosecutor Laurent Maye defended himself from the attacks by the victim’s lawyer, believing that no description of the facts had been omitted in his investigation. “We must judge the facts here and not make a trial of intent,” he insisted. He did not hesitate to say that “the conspiracy theory was not far away”, regarding the comments made by Me Ntah. He reiterated that he did not support murder by dolus eventualis.
The hearing resumes at 2:30 p.m. with the decision of the Court of Appeal on the requisitions.
>> Read also: The Lausanne court vandalized after the acquittal of the police in the Mike affair
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