Zurich High Court acquits police officer
Published: Thursday, Feb 15th 2024, 19:40
Updated At: Thursday, Feb 15th 2024, 19:40
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The Zurich High Court has acquitted a 48-year-old police officer of the charge of endangering life. He was accused of massively assaulting a dark-skinned man in Zurich in 2009 when he resisted a body check.
On Thursday, the Zurich High Court confirmed the acquittal of the Zurich District Court from April 2018. Together with the 48-year-old Zurich municipal police officer who led the controversial operation, a policewoman and a police officer were also on trial at the time. Their acquittals were no longer contested before the High Court.
Like the District Court, the High Court acquitted the police officer of the charge of endangering life. The accused had not choked the then 36-year-old private plaintiff Wilson A. and had not used any other unreasonable force. The private plaintiff himself had caused the escalation through his behavior.
Wilson A. and his sympathizers see the man from Nigeria as a victim of racism and police violence. Several organizations following the case speak of a typical example of racial profiling, i.e. the police checking dark-skinned people solely on the basis of their skin color.
No hearing for racial profiling allegations
The court rejected allegations in this regard, which were also raised by the private plaintiff's lawyer. "If the police are looking for a dark-skinned person, they will check dark-skinned people and not white people and vice versa," said the presiding judge at the opening of the verdict.
The accused police officer's lawyer also said that there was no case of racial profiling. The police officers had had to arrest the private plaintiff after he became terribly upset about the check and attacked the officers. There could be no question of an excess of violence on the part of the police officers.
The now 50-year-old Wilson A. was on his way home on the streetcar that evening in October 2009 after a party with a friend who was also dark-skinned.
When a policewoman and a policeman got on the streetcar and demanded their ID cards, the two men's good mood changed. They suspected that they were only being checked because of the color of their skin and said so.
The two policemen got off the bus with the two men at the next stop, where a third policeman was already waiting. It was the squad leader who was in court on Thursday.
From this point onwards, the accounts of the two men and the police officers diverge widely. The police officers had pounced on Wilson A. for no reason, pepper-spraying and beating him. Finally, he was also choked, said the lawyer for private plaintiff Wilson A.
According to the police officers, Wilson A. had behaved uncooperatively and aggressively from the outset and attacked them. They therefore had to defend themselves and finally brought him to the ground with combined forces and arrested him. The reason for the check was that one of the men resembled a person who was wanted at the time.
A.'s lawyer vehemently denied the latter. He said that this was a purely protective claim by the police officers, who had only come up with it after the incident.
Demo in front and expressions of discontent in the hall
Dozens of sympathizers of Wilson A. gathered outside the Zurich High Court on Thursday morning for a rally and also accompanied him into the courtroom.
A murmur of disbelief went through the courtroom when the accused police officer said that the lengthy court proceedings were a heavy personal burden on him. The judge threatened to have the courtroom cleared in the event of a repeat offense. There were also brief expressions of displeasure from the audience when the police officer was acquitted.
The ruling of the High Court is not yet legally binding. It can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. The lawyers and supporters had already announced in advance that they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if necessary.
©Keystone/SDA
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