The Bayonne public prosecutor’s office requested the referral to the Assize Court of Dr Nicolas Bonnemaison. This former emergency doctor was indicted in August 2011 for eight cases of fatal poisoning of vulnerable patients.
It was through an open letter to François Hollande that they had expressed their “indignation” in early February. Nearly 250 doctors were asking at the time for the suspension of the radiation pronounced by the Order of Physicians against Dr Nicolas Bonnemaison. This former emergency physician at Bayonne hospital was then suspected of being involved in the death, in 2011, of end-of-life patients hospitalized at the Basque Coast hospital. He had been indicted for seven cases of fatal poisoning of vulnerable patients and placed under the status of assisted witness for an eighth. But today, the case of Dr Nicolas Bonnemaison could well worsen. The Bayonne public prosecutor’s office last week requested the referral to the assize court of the doctor, Reuters learned Monday evening according to the Medical Press Agency.
“Nicolas Bonnemaison is ready to defend himself before a popular jury,” one of his lawyers, Me Benoît Ducos-Ader, told Reuters. And the lawyer added, “We will go and explain ourselves to the Assize Court. All persons who can testify on these questions of euthanasia will be summoned. We will closely examine the issues that go well beyond the issues related to this affair ”.
Surprising anecdotal, the lawyer emphasizes having learned of the existence of the prosecution’s indictment on Monday on the website of the daily Sud-Ouest and having “been obliged to telephone to request a copy”, with his colleague Me Arnaud Dupin.
Now, it is now up to the two investigating magistrates to close the case by resuming or not the prosecution’s indictment. As the investigation ended in May, their order could be issued in late August or early September, and the trial would take place in 2014, the daily said. The latter also recalls that Dr. Bonnemaison recognized a case of injection of lethal substances and always assured to have acted alone.
In his defense, the Dr has been claiming since the beginning of the affair, having had the sole motivation of reducing the suffering of patients but has never claimed militant action. Only the family of a victim became a civil party.
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