The prosecution demanded on Thursday six months suspended prison sentence and 10,000 euros fine against two sisters prosecuted in Metz for hundreds of injections of hyaluronic acid, a substance used to inflate the lips.
Their trial before the Metz criminal court opened when 200 cosmetic surgeons asked the government to ban the free sale of hyaluronic acid, in a column published Wednesday by Le Parisien.
Hematomas in the injection area
The two women are prosecuted for concealed work and illegal practice of medicine.
They are accused of having injected hyaluronic acid into several hundred clients, from January 2020 to November 2022, in the cities of Woippy (Moselle), Paris and Marseille.
The case broke out after a client filed a complaint in January 2022 alleging hematomas in the injected area.
“
Classic side effects
”, argued Olivier Hurault, lawyer for one of the sisters.
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Pleading the acquittal on the illegal practice of medicine, the defense relied on the legal void existing in the matter.
“
If there is a text which registers the illegal practice of medicine in the Public Health Code, listing a certain number of acts which can only be practiced by doctors of medicine (...), for injections of hyaluronic acid, there are none
, ”argued Xavier Iochum, one of the lawyers.
For the brother as well as the brother-in-law of the defendants - prosecuted for complicity because they paid for the electricity of the apartment where the two women officiated, the prosecutor Julien Berger asked for a fine of 2,000 euros.
The case was adjourned until April 26.
So far,
In their forum, cosmetic surgeons claim that “
hundreds of non-physician injectors practice illegal acts on the population, especially the youngest and most vulnerable, with great publicity on social networks”
.
In the most serious cases, these injections "
could lead to sepsis, gangrene and hospitalizations in intensive care, threatening the vital prognosis of young patients
".
"
The victims are sometimes disfigured for life and psychologically broken
" and "
they dare not file a complaint, because they are often victims of physical threats
", they continue.