A right-to-die activist was released Monday after more than two months in police custody over the first use of a so-called “suicide capsule” after he ruled out the possibility of intentional homicide, Swiss prosecutors said.
Florian Willett, head of the advocacy group The Last Resort, was released by authorities in the northern Schaffhausen region, where in late September a 64-year-old American woman was reported to be the first user of the Sarco suicide capsule, a sealed chamber that releases gas when a button is pressed.
Authorities detained four people but initially released only three of them — Willett was kept in custody on suspicions that the woman, who was not identified, may not have committed suicide but may have been murdered.
This story contains discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
The Swiss government directs questions about suicide prevention to a group called “Darzebotene Hand,” or The Offered Hand.
A statement from prosecutors on Monday said a criminal case was opened on Sept. 23, the day of the woman’s death, alleging “incitement and provocation to suicide” and “strong suspicion of intentional homicide.”
Although the autopsy report from experts in neighboring Zurich is not yet available, investigators no longer suspect intentional homicide, the statement said, although there is “strong suspicion of the crime of incitement and provocation to suicide.” The suspect has been released from custody, the statement said, though it did not identify the suspect by name.
Villette has repeatedly spoken to The Associated Press before her arrest and her colleagues have spoken out publicly in her defense in hopes of securing her release.
Prosecutors did not provide any further details, including whether the suspect was granted conditional release and that he faces a continued criminal investigation on suspicion of inciting suicide. A call by the AP to Willett’s mobile phone was not immediately answered.
Sarco developer Philip Nitschke, of Exit International, a right-to-die group affiliated with The Last Resort, has said that allegations that the woman was strangled were “absurd.”
Nitschke said he had watched video of the woman’s death in a forest in the Schaffhausen region near the German border, and that the device worked as planned.
Sarco was designed so that a person sitting in its reclining seat could press a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person then falls unconscious and dies of suffocation within minutes.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide, provided the person takes his or her own life without “external help” and those who help the person die do not do so with “any selfish motive,” a government website says.
Switzerland is one of the few countries where foreigners can legally travel to take their own life and there are several organizations dedicated to helping people commit suicide.
Nitsch has repeatedly said that Swiss lawyers for Exit International had advised that the use of the capsules would be legal in Switzerland.