Director behind suicide capsule Sarco died after guided suicide

Florian Willet, the director behind the company that designed the suicide capsule Sarco, died last 5 May at the age of 47 with help with suicide. The company, Exit International, announced this on Sunday evening in A farewell message. According to colleague Philip Nitschke, who invented the Sarco, Willet’s death was the result of a serious psychological crisis, arising after his long -term and controversial detention in Switzerland.

Willet was arrested in September last year, shortly after a 64-year-old American woman in Switzerland had used the Sarco capsule. She got into that airtight capsule, activated the system and died in a few minutes through the release of nitrogen gas. Willet was the only one at that time with the device and witnessed her death. Switzerland was chosen as a location for this first application of the Sarco, because assistance with suicide there, under strict conditions, is permitted.

After Willet reported the woman’s death to the police, he became arrested On suspicion of intentional killing. Proof of that suspicion was not forthcoming, it says in the message. Willet was held in full insulation for seventy days.

Disorder by custody

According to Exit International, Willet returned as another person after his release in December. « In his place was a man who seemed deeply traumatized by the experience of captivity and the unjustified accusation of strangulation, » said the company’s statement. Nitschke says he has a psychiatric report that shows that Willet suffered from a psychotic disorder caused by the stress of the custody. There would have been no previous psychological complaints.

After his release in December, Willet was recorded twice in a psychiatric clinic. His partner gave him up as missing in recent weeks. Only recently did she hear from the Swiss justice that he had died in Germany, in Cologne. There he had called in the help of a specialized organization. How he put an end to his life is not clear.

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