A surgeon who had submitted an X-ray of the arm of a survivor of the Bataclan attack on a site selling digital NFT objects was sentenced on Wednesday by the Paris court to pay 5,000 euros to the complainant.
The court did not follow the requisitions of the prosecution who had asked during the hearing on September 28 for a one-year suspended prison sentence, a fine of 15,000 euros and a ban on exercise for a period of one year. for Professor Emmanuel Masmejean, renowned orthopedic surgeon.
The defendant was sentenced to a penalty of compensation, to be carried out within six months, at the end of which he will be liable to two months' imprisonment if the sentence is not carried out.
No sentence of disqualification, even temporary”, was pronounced against the surgeon because it would have been “disproportionate and unsuitable”, and in order not “to exclude (Mr. Masmejean) from any life social”.
“He does not deserve to be condemned to social death,” insisted the president.
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Professor Masmejean was not present in court on Wednesday;
the complainant was also absent.
On sick leave and suspended by the AP-HP, the surgeon had appeared before the Order of Physicians on September 29 and the decision is "still pending", according to his lawyer, Ivan Terel.
The surgeon, officiating at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, was prosecuted for breach of medical secrecy, misappropriation of the purpose of processing personal data and voluntary illegal disclosure of harmful personal data.
He was accused of having published at the end of 2021 on the American site of NFT Opensea - which has 20 million users, according to the court - a photo of the radio of a woman injured in the Bataclan concert hall during the attacks. of November 13, 2015 which he himself had operated on.
The photo showed a forearm pierced by a Kalashnikov bullet, accompanied by a comment indicating that "this young patient" has "lost her boyfriend in this attack", or "elements of the patient's private life".
"It's not a very good message for doctors"
The court recognized the guilt of the defendant on the facts of violation of medical secrecy but did not consider as demonstrated the offenses related to personal data.
"It's a very politically correct judgment," said Élodie Abraham, the victim's lawyer.
“We have a surgeon, good in every way, and it doesn't bother anyone that there is such a flagrant violation of medical confidentiality.
This is not a very good message for doctors "in terms of ethics, she said.
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During the hearing at the end of September, Professor Masmejean had recognized "bullshit, an error, a clumsiness" arguing that it was an "experiment", that of "putting a striking and historical medical snapshot" of his career on a blockchain.
The snapshot, estimated at 2,776 dollars (the value of 1 of an NFT) had not been sold.
He had been withdrawn as soon as the affair was revealed by the Mediapart news site in January.