Justice is reviewing the possibility of a criminal trial in the asbestos scandal. Nine people could be tried from September.
The cases of asbestos exposure of employees of the university campus of Jussieu (Paris) and of the Normed shipyards (Dunkirk) are not classified. The investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal has been examining again, since June 7, the possibility of a criminal appeal for victims’ associations.
His decision, expected in mid-September, could lead to the indictment of nine people, scientific, industrial or administrative officials, involved in the scandal. They are accused by the civil party of being involved in the lobbying effort of the Asbestos Standing Committee. This had delayed the total ban on the use of asbestos, promoting controlled use. The nine members of this committee would be prosecuted for manslaughter and unintentional injury.
Second chance
In July 2014, the defendants had obtained the annulment of their indictment by the Paris Court of Appeal. A decision invalidated a year later by the Court of Cassation, which then gave the plaintiffs a second chance.
“We hope that the court has heard our arguments,” declared Me Antoine Vey, lawyer for the civil parties, at the end of the hearing on June 7. At this stage, they aim to allow the judicial investigation to continue in order to be able to specifically discuss the substance of this case in the context of a public and adversarial trial.
Alongside the famous lawyer Éric Dupond-Moretti, he denounced in particular “the particularly scandalous conditions in which workers and users of the public service were exposed to the deadly fiber. “
Controversial “controlled use”
The defendants advance the scientific argument to justify the attitude of the members of the Asbestos Standing Committee (CPA). “The scientific rule at the time was the controlled use of asbestos and there was no scientific knowledge to conclude that its ban was mandatory”, argued in particular Me Benoît Chabert, lawyer for Jean-Louis Pasquier, one of the nine accused, in charge of chemical risks at the Ministry of Labor between 1977 and 1994.
The defendants’ lawyers are counting on a verdict similar to that of the Ferodo-Valeo factory in Condé-sur-Noireau (Calvados). The eight people tried, including Martine Aubry, had been exonerated.
The “anesthetized” state
However, the risks of pulmonary fibrosis and cancer had already been known since the 1950s. But the profitability of asbestos had motivated manufacturers to organize themselves, in particular around the CPA, to slow down regulatory changes. It was not until 1997, under the first Chirac presidency, that it was definitively banned. A Senate report dating from 2005 denounced a State “anesthetized by the asbestos lobby”.
According to an estimate by the InVS, the use of the substance could be at the origin of 68,000 to 100,000 deaths by 2050, in particular from cancers of the lung and especially of the pleura (mesothelioma), which are caused by asbestos in 80% of cases.
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