Fifteen years of criminal imprisonment were required on Friday February 24 in Bordeaux against a septuagenarian ex-radiologist tried for rape and sexual assault on patients whom he denies en bloc but whom he had set up as a “system” according to the
prosecution
.
Bassam el Absi, struck off in 2019 from the College of Physicians and now retired, is accused by eight women, former patients but also a medical secretary and a teenager at the material time.
“Courageous” approach by the complainants
In an indictment of nearly two hours, the Advocate General endeavored to demonstrate that "
each of these women
" traumatized who told the bar their ordeal "
said the truth
".
She highlighted their “
courageous
” approach, their precise declarations and the expertise allowing them to question the medical practices of the radiologist.
She also ruled out that they could have conspired to harm the doctor, as the latter suggested.
The representative of the public prosecutor's office denounced “
an El Absi system, an El Absi way of life
” based on control and using “
a double power
”.
The power “
of the status of doctor and that of the money he earns to pervert the relationship with women
”, she explained, in reference to the many gifts that the man gave to his entourage and his employees.
Read also“I would like my mother to wake up”: the doubts of the daughter of the Bordeaux radiologist accused of rape and sexual assault
"
The system has collapsed, it's over,
" said the Advocate General, looking at the 71-year-old former radiologist from Langon (Gironde), against whom she also requested five-year socio-judicial follow-up.
Among the plaintiffs, a former patient, aged 31, explained to the court that she had no longer had a "
sentimental life
" for six years because of the accused: "
He screwed up my life, I don't know if I I will one day be able to trust a man
”.
In 2016, during an appointment for an ultrasound with the doctor, she said she had undergone massages in the private parts and disturbing positions.
"
I could have screamed but I couldn't
," she said.
Today, "
the feeling of shame still exists
" in the thirties who evokes "
anxiety attacks
" and insomnia.
His complaint, filed the same day for sexual assault, and that of another patient triggered the legal proceedings against the practitioner.
Other testimony supported complaints filed between 2016 and 2019.
The defendant denies
But three women would have previously reported to the Order of Doctors of Gironde, between 2002 and 2013, without effect.
His former patients have described specific facts, touching at the level of the private parts or digital penetrations.
But at the helm, Bassam el Absi strongly contested.
He explained his way of working with grand gestures, refuted acts he allegedly committed, invoked medical reasons to deny having had an erection in contact with certain women, explaining that “a patient can very well imagine
”
.
His lawyer Me Alexandre Novion mentioned "
fantasies
" which may have arisen and fueled additional complaints.
"Set up"
The ex-radiologist was also accused by a former secretary of touching in his workplace, like other colleagues who did not file a complaint.
Bassam El Absi judged that it was a "
set-up
", constantly repeating that he was a financially generous man, having always "
given to everyone
" and to his employees.
The daughter of a former secretary who was his mistress, aged 15 at the time, also accused this doctor of rape, with whom she thought she had "
a relationship of trust
".
He had come to give her a weight loss cream and he would have taken the opportunity to rape her in her room.
"
It seemed like an eternity, I just wanted it to stop
," said the one who has since become a nurse.
“
I am disgusted, I was there all the time to help his family
,” replied Bassam El Absi, once again denying the accusations.
For a lawyer for civil parties, Me Sabrina Lathus, the trial must serve to tell the victims “
that they were not dreaming
”.
The verdict is expected on Monday.
