The public prosecution department has closed its investigation into the Last Will co-operative, which had been planning to distribute a ‘suicide powder’ in the Netherlands.

The department said in a statement that it could not prove the cooperative was guilty of helping people to commit suicide or other infringements of the law.

The coop itself said in March, after the investigation was launched, that it had halted the distribution plans to protect its members from facing criminal charges.

The public prosecution service launched an investigation shortly after it emerged that a 19-year-old woman had taken her own life using the powder. She bought the substance on the internet but was not a member of the Last Will group.

The prosecution service says ordering a powder for the purpose of ending someone’s life amounts to assisted suicide, which is illegal in the Netherlands except when performed by a doctor under strict conditions.