A man detained since September in connection with the death of a US woman inside a controversial Swiss suicide capsule was released on Monday, although he remains under suspicion.
A 64-year-old woman took her own life on September 23 inside the Sarco capsule at a Swiss forest retreat on the outskirts of a town near the German border.
Several people were arrested in the incident, all but one of whom were quickly released.
The prosecutor in the northern canton of Schaffhausen did not release the name of the other arrested suspect.
However, The Last Resort, an assisted dying organization, recently said that association co-president Florian Willet — the only other person who died — was the man still in custody.
As the public prosecutor’s office announced in a statement, it initially opened criminal proceedings for suicide and aiding and abetting, with a strong suspicion of intentional homicide.
According to the German De Volkskrant, a forensic analyst said the woman’s body had severe neck injuries and prosecutors suggested she had been strangled. According to NewsweekSwitzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung also reported that the unreleased autopsy “found ‘suffocation’ marks on the woman’s neck.”
However, other reports have suggested the marks on her neck were caused by a rare bone condition the woman had before her death. Although an autopsy is not yet available, officials are completely ruling out homicide.
“According to the state of the latest investigation, there is still a strong suspicion of suspicion of suicide and the crime of aiding and abetting, but no longer of intentional murder, even if the autopsy report is not yet available,” he said.
“The prosecution has therefore released the last person arrested”, he said, adding: “The presumption of innocence applies”.
How the pod works: Nitrogen causes death by hypoxia
Last Resort unveiled the Sarco pod in Zurich in July, saying they expected to use it for the first time within a month.
The capsule is filled with nitrogen and causes unconsciousness and death from hypoxia within five minutes, according to the organization.
The human-sized portable container, which is self-operated by a button inside, has raised a number of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades.
Swiss law generally allows assisted suicide if the person commits the fatal act themselves, and The Last Resort said it saw no legal obstacles to its use in the country.
However, on the same day the Sarco was used, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told lawmakers the device was “not legal”.
The Last Resort said the person who died — who has not been named — was a 64-year-old woman from the Midwestern United States.
“He has been suffering from some serious problems related to severe immune compromise for many years,” the organization said.
Sarco was invented by Philip Nitschke, a leading global figure in right-to-die activism.
The 3D printable capsule cost more than 650,000 euros ($680,000) to research and develop in the Netherlands over 12 years.
According to the organization, future reusable Sarco pods can cost around 15,000 euros.
