Dr. Frédéric Péchier trial: Anesthesiologist accused of 12 murders to appear in court in Besançon

The 53-year-old doctor is accused of knowingly poisoning 30 patients, aged between four and 89, 12 of whom died, between 2008 and 2017 in two private clinics in Besançon. The "common denominator" of these poisonings, overwhelmed by "a bundle of concordant evidence" according to the prosecution, the former practitioner, who has always maintained his innocence, faces life imprisonment. However, he has never been imprisoned since the start of the investigation, the judges having chosen to leave him free, under judicial supervision.

After eight years of investigation "conducted exclusively for the prosecution," and while "everyone [...] always assumed he was guilty," this is the "first time" that the accused "will be able to explain himself and we will debate everything," observes one of his lawyers, Randall Schwerdorffer, who, along with his colleague Lee Takhedmit, will plead for acquittal. Dr. Frédéric Péchier is suspected of having contaminated the IV bags of patients treated by his colleagues, to cause cardiac arrest, before often helping to resuscitate them.

Starting Monday and for two weeks, the court will examine the most recent cases, those that aroused investigators' suspicions and led to the indictment of Frédéric Péchier in March 2017. Sandra Simard, 36 years old in January 2017, suffered a cardiac arrest—which she survived—during an operation at the Saint-Vincent clinic. A potentially lethal dose of potassium was discovered in a bag of saline used for her anesthesia. Jean-Claude Gandon, 70 years old at the time, is the last known victim of the series of poisonings. The only one of the 30 victims to have been anesthetized directly by Frédéric Péchier, he was also able to be resuscitated.

Then, over the following weeks, each of the poisonings attributed to the doctor will be examined, starting with the oldest.

In this case, "without parallel in French judicial annals," the anesthesiologist is suspected of "having poisoned healthy patients, to harm colleagues with whom he was in conflict" and then demonstrate his skills as a resuscitator, noted the former prosecutor of Besançon, Étienne Manteaux. Highlighting "the omnipresence (of Dr. Frédéric Péchier) in the management of resuscitation in cases of cardiac arrest" and "his early diagnoses," he described "a particularly skillful health professional who acted when no one was in the anesthesia rooms and who knew how to vary the nature of the poisons administered over time so as not to arouse suspicion."

"It's a dizzying case," notes Frédéric Berna, who will be representing many of the civil parties. "These are purely gratuitous poisonings of victims who have nothing to do with him, who have never done anything," notes the lawyer. In the book "The Time He Has Left," published four days before the trial opened and based on interviews with the accused, journalist Plana Radenovic explains the defense's strategy: to demonstrate that there is no formal evidence against the anesthesiologist, and that no other avenues have been explored.