Dr Frédéric Péchier, an anesthetist indicted for 24 poisonings of patients, was notified of a ban on practicing any medical activity, a few weeks after a previous court decision which authorized him to practice as a simple doctor, learned the AFP on Monday with his lawyer.
The defense received from the judge responsible for investigating the case
"an order prohibiting Dr. Péchier from exercising any medical activity"
, one of his advisers, Me Randall Schwerdorffer, told AFP, confirming information of France Bleu Besancon.
Dr Péchier will appeal
“We are going to appeal this decision before the investigating chamber”
of the Besançon Court of Appeal, announced Mr. Schwerdorffer, denouncing
“judicial harassment to prevent Dr. Frédéric Péchier from finding a semblance of existence”.
This ban comes after the decision on January 11 of the investigating chamber which had considered on the contrary that he could exercise a medical activity, with the exception of that of anesthetist-resuscitator.
Seized by the defense of Dr. Péchier, the court had then brought its reading of a decision of the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD) initially prohibiting Dr. Péchier “to exercise the
profession of doctor-anaesthetist”.
An initial decision long interpreted as a global ban on the practice of medicine - wrongly according to the investigating chamber.
The latter had also reduced the judicial control of Dr Péchier, authorizing him in particular to return to the Doubs where his children reside, but obliging him to keep his main residence in Vienne, where he lives with his parents.
These points were not modified by the order of the investigating judge served on Monday, according to Mr. Schwerdorffer.
The decision of the investigating chamber had aroused the ire of the public prosecutor of Besançon, Étienne Manteaux, who announced the next day during a press conference his intention to seize the investigating judge, considering "
not a single conceivable moment”
that Frédéric Péchier, certainly
“presumed innocent”
but indicted,
“is authorized to practice”
medicine.
Read also Case of the anesthetist Péchier: update on the investigation into the poisonings in Besançon
Asked by AFP, Étienne Manteaux had not reacted at the start of the evening.
Frédéric Péchier, 51, is suspected of having polluted the infusion bags of patients to cause cardiac arrest and then demonstrate his skills as a resuscitator, but also discredit colleagues with whom he was in conflict.
He is indicted for 24 cases of poisoning, including nine fatalities.
Since September, he has also been suspected of eight new cases of potential poisoning of patients, including four fatalities.
The practitioner has claimed his innocence since the start of the case.
