Four to eight months suspended prison sentence were required Tuesday, October 19 against three former Paris firefighters, tried for having filmed and broadcast images of the operation of a young man who had impaled himself on a sidewalk post after a defenestration.
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On the evening of September 27, 2018, the 26-year-old man finally died at Beaujon hospital in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine).
A few days later, images of him in agony, in the operating room, had circulated on social networks, including a video depicting the extraction of the post from the inanimate body of the naked patient, under the exclamations of a member of the assistance.
Two former doctors and a former firefighter from the Paris firefighters, now aged 29 and 30, appeared before the Paris Criminal Court, for having fixed or transmitted without his consent the image of the victim lying in a private place.
The mother of the young man who died seriously condemned their actions: "
We cannot allow this kind of unbearable transgression
".
Survey based on 35 testimonies
The prosecutor in particular required 8 months of suspended imprisonment against the doctor author of the video broadcast on the internet.
"
I never thought that this video was going to leak,
" defended this defendant, detailing at length the rare medical intervention he was leading that evening.
The investigation, based in particular on 35 testimonies, showed that the three soldiers had taken photos and videos in the removal room with their phones, and had shared them with fellow caregivers or firefighters, in particular on WhatsApp.
The person responsible for disseminating the video to the general public could not be identified.
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The defendants and their lawyers affirmed that this sharing had been carried out for the purposes of "
retex
" ("
experience feedback
") to "
improve the care
" of victims in a similar situation. "
A fortiori when they are deployed on an intervention which was exceptional if not unique
", insisted the lawyer for the doctors, Me Pierre-Henry Lebrun. "
This video is not a '' retex ''
", the lawyer for the two brothers of the deceased was carried away. "
We all understand, of course, that in medical circles, by dint of being grappling with difficult scenes, the seams fart a bit (...) but do not come and tell us with an expert tone. -Accounting that we did that as part of a specific process
, "protested Me Orly Rezlan.
The prosecution ruled that the fixation of these images was "
prohibited
".
For a photo, four firefighters posed seated with the bloody sidewalk post.
"
It's really stupid,
" admitted a doctor.
The judgment will be rendered on November 30.
In February 2021, two police officers had already been sentenced to two months in prison suspended for broadcasting images of the young man's fall on the pole, from video surveillance of the street.
