{"id":426504,"date":"2024-12-03T11:21:46","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=426504"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Suspect-freed-from-custody-over-suicide-capsule-death-in-Switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Suspect-freed-from-custody-over-suicide-capsule-death-in-Switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect freed from custody over suicide capsule death in Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man held since September over the death of a US woman inside a controversial suicide capsule in Switzerland was released from custody Monday, though he remains under suspicion.<\/p>\n

A 64-year-old woman took her own life on September 23 inside the space-age looking Sarco capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, outside a village near the German border.<\/p>\n

Several people were arrested at the scene, with all but one being quickly released.<\/p>\n

The public prosecutor in the northern canton of Schaffhausen did not name the remaining suspect in custody.<\/p>\n

However, The Last Resort, an assisted dying organisation, had recently said the association’s co-president Florian Willet — the only other person present at the death — was the man still being held.<\/p>\n

The public prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it had originally opened criminal proceedings on the grounds of incitement and aiding and abetting suicide, with strong suspicion of intentional homicide.<\/p>\n

“Based on the latest investigation status, there is still a strong suspicion of the crime of incitement and aiding and abetting suicide, but no longer of intentional homicide, even if the autopsy report… is not yet available,” it said.<\/p>\n

“The public prosecutor’s office has therefore released the last detained person from custody,” it said, adding: “The presumption of innocence applies.”<\/p>\n

– Pod fills with nitrogen –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

The Last Resort presented the Sarco pod in Zurich in July, saying they expected it to be used for the first time within months.<\/p>\n

The capsule fills with nitrogen and causes loss of consciousness and death by hypoxia within five minutes, according to the organisation.<\/p>\n

The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country but assisted dying has been legal for decades.<\/p>\n

Swiss law generally allows assisted suicide if the person commits the lethal act themselves, and The Last Resort said it saw no legal obstacle to its use in the country.<\/p>\n

However, on the same day the Sarco was used, Switzerland’s Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told lawmakers that the device was “not legal”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Last Resort said the person who died — who was not named — was a 64-year-old woman from the midwestern United States.<\/p>\n

She “had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise”, the organisation said.<\/p>\n

The Sarco was invented by Philip Nitschke, a leading global figure in right-to-die activism.<\/p>\n

The 3D-printable capsule cost more than 650,000 euros ($680,000) to research and develop in the Netherlands over 12 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The organisation said future reusable Sarco pods could cost around 15,000 euros.<\/p>\n

rjm\/nl\/giv<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Sarco suicide pod causes death by hypoxia<\/p>\n

-ARND WIEGMANN
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The button inside the Sarco suicide capsule releases the nitrogen<\/p>\n

-ARND WIEGMANN
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The Last Resort’s advisory board member Fiona Stewart presented the Sarco capsule in Zurich in July<\/p>\n

-ARND WIEGMANN
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man held since September over the death of a US woman inside a controversial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}