Three former Paris firefighters, tried for filming and broadcasting images of the operation of a young man who impaled himself on a sidewalk post after a defenestration, were sentenced on Tuesday, November 30 to terms of two to four month in prison suspended by the Paris Criminal Court.
Only one defendant appeared at the hearing.
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The facts date back to September 27, 2018. That evening, a 26-year-old young man jumped from the 6th floor of his building and impaled himself on a pole in a street.
The man, psychologically fragile and under medical treatment, had finally died at the Beaujon hospital in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine).
A few days later, images of his 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 audience.
An "unbearable transgression"
Two doctors who belonged to the Paris firefighters and a former firefighter, now aged 29 and 30, were on trial for having fixed or transmitted without his consent the image of the victim in a private place.
The mother of the young man who died seriously condemned their actions: "
We cannot allow this kind of unbearable transgression
", she said during the trial in October.
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.
During the trial, 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.
"
This video is not a retex,
" said the lawyer for the two brothers of the deceased.
“
We all understand, of course, that in medical circles, by dint of being grappling with difficult scenes, the seams are a bit farted (...) but don't come and tell us with a tone of chartered accountant that we did that as part of a specific process
, ”Mr. Orly Rezlan had supported.
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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.