Australian behind ‘suicide pod’ slams shocking claim after woman’s death

An Australian right-to-die activist behind a new ‘suicide capsule’ says he rejects ‘absurd’ allegations that the American woman, said to be its first user, may have been strangled.

Philip Nitschke of advocacy group Exit International said on Wednesday he was not physically present at the woman’s September 23 death involving the ‘Sarco’ capsule in a forest in northern Switzerland, but he saw it live via video broadcast .

The device worked as planned, he said, the first and only time it was used.

The head of a Swiss branch of Exit International known as The Last Resort, Florian Willet, was present at the woman’s death and was immediately taken into custody, where he remains while police investigate the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death.

Several other people, including a journalist from de Volkskrant in the Netherlands, where Nitschke lives, were initially taken into custody and prosecutors launched an investigation on suspicion of incitement and complicity to suicide.

They were later released.

Australian-born Nitschke broke weeks of silence with an interview with the respected Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung, which was published on Wednesday.

In a phone call with The Associated Press, he said he felt compelled to speak out because Exit International was “desperate” about the fate of Willet, who could remain behind bars for weeks or months until a possible trial.

Nitschke lies in a ‘suicide capsule’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam, Netherlands

He said prosecutors have asked for an extension of Willet’s detention, “claiming there was no evidence of murder.”

He denied the accusation.

“We have to try to do something about the fact that Florian has now been in jail for about 58 days,” Nitschke said.

He said he had offered to travel to Switzerland to speak with prosecutors as part of their investigation and to share video footage and data on the oxygen levels in the capsule at the time the woman died.

“We will offer everything we have,” he said, adding that prosecutors “have not accepted that suggestion.”

Swiss law allows assisted suicide as long as the person ends his or her life without “external assistance,” and those who help the person die do not do so out of “any self-interest,” according to a government website.

Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives and has a number of organizations dedicated to helping people commit suicide.

The first use of the Sarco capsule took place in the middle of the forest

Nitschke has repeatedly said that Exit International’s Swiss lawyers had advised that use of the capsule would be legal in Switzerland.

The “Sarco,” which Nitschke said cost $1 million to develop and build, was designed so that someone sitting in the reclining seat could press a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber.

The person should then fall unconscious and die of suffocation within a few minutes.

The 64-year-old woman was not identified. Nitschke, a trained physician, said she had “compromised immune function” that left her “subject to chronic infections.”

On October 26, de Volkskrant reported that the Swiss prosecutor had indicated in court that the woman may have been strangled.

Last month’s Volkskrant article stated that one of the photographers, two lawyers and Willet had originally been detained on suspicion of inciting suicide and providing assistance.

“It’s absurd because we have film that the capsule was not opened,” Nitschke said. ‘Everything happened exactly as we predicted. The woman climbed into the Sarco alone, closed the lid without assistance and pressed the button that released the nitrogen. She lost consciousness and died after about six minutes.”

He added that Willet was holding a cell phone through which Nitschke viewed live video of the woman using the Sarco, and immediately afterwards informed police that she had died.

Nitschke recalled speaking to Willet by phone at the time, saying, “I listened and answered his questions and calmed him down because it was a very tense time for him.”

Peter Sticher, the prosecutor for the northern Schaffhausen region leading the lawsuit, declined to comment in an email to the AP on Wednesday, citing an ongoing investigation.

Nitschke, front, stands next to a ‘suicide capsule’ known as ‘The Sarco’ in Rotterdam

Swiss police seized the only working Sarco device, but Nitschke said another was being produced. He said he wanted a “clear decision” from the Swiss court before using the device again in Switzerland.

Exit presented the ‘Sarco’ to journalists this summer. Before they could use it, the group had to overcome technical issues, including the original designer leaving the project, Nitschke says.

The Sarco has been billed as a new, peaceful way for people to commit suicide at the touch of a button, such as in a rural landscape of their choice.

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