My apologies orschiro. Seems I gave you a solution for the wrong flavor of ubuntu.
I used
gsettings set org.gnome
When it should have been
gsettings set org.mate
Examples:
For AC
gsettings set org.mate.power-manager button-lid-ac 'nothing'
gsettings set org.mate.power-manager button-lid-ac 'suspend'
For battery
gsettings set org.mate.power-manager button-lid-battery 'nothing'
gsettings set org.mate.power-manager button-lid-battery 'suspend'
I can verify this does work in ubuntu-mate 17.04. I have not tested it in previous versions so…
Thanks to @mdooley for providing a correct solution to your question. 