SIX police officers are due to go on trial in Switzerland later on charges of manslaughter in connection with the death of a Nigerian man five years ago.
Mike Ben Peter died after being arrested in the city of Lausanne.
Police say they used standard techniques to apprehend the alleged drug dealer.
The officers pinned him to the ground after he refused to be searched.
The defence is to argue that Mike Ben Peter’s death was likely to have been a result of underlying health problems.
According to the indictment, the officers first noticed Peter during a drug patrol after he collected a bag later shown to contain marijuana, adding that Peter did not comply with police requests and the officers used pepper spray and knee kicks to the ribs and groping to get him on the ground and handcuff him.
It said he continued to struggle as he was held face-down by several officers for three minutes until they noticed he appeared unconscious.
The indictment said Peter was later pronounced dead after a heart attack with multiple causes, including the fact that he was held on his stomach and subjected to stress.
The officers each face a maximum sentence of three years in prison if convicted.
Due to Swiss privacy laws, the accused names cannot be revealed at this stage of the proceedings.
The dead man’s family and anti-racist groups in Switzerland have drawn parallels to the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police in the United States in Minneapolis.
