He still claims his innocence, but Frédéric Péchier, former anesthesiologist from Besançon, was referred to the prosecution this Thursday, May 16.
After 48 hours in police custody, Frédéric Péchier, former star anesthesiologist from Besançon, was “brought to the prosecution” on Thursday. He is now suspected by investigators of being involved in “fifty cases” of poisoning.
His lawyer, Me Randall Schwerdorffer, thus declared that his client “was referred this morning to the prosecution after the end of his police custody” to be “presented to the public prosecutor”. He could be charged and remanded in custody.
“Arsonist Firefighter”
The practitioner’s custody, which began on Tuesday, May 14, was part of a preliminary investigation into new “facts of potential poisoning which have been the subject of just over two years of investigation. ‘investigations’, according to a source familiar with the matter. The logic of the suspect would be, according to the police, that of the “arsonist firefighter”. The aim would have been to poison the patients of his colleagues in order to be able to exercise his skills as a resuscitator.
The investigation relates to about fifty reports of “serious adverse events” (SAE) which took place in clinics where the anesthetist practiced. “These are unexpected events with regard to the state of health and the pathology of the person and whose consequences are death, the risk of vital prognosis, the probable occurrence of a permanent functional deficit including including a congenital anomaly or malformation”, specifies the High Authority of Health.
Frédéric Péchier still proclaims his innocence
The practitioner has already been indicted for seven poisonings, two of which were fatal. In 2017, another judicial investigation had left Frédéric Péchier free under judicial supervision, with a ban on practicing his profession as an anesthesiologist after his indictment. The investigation had then established that the nine patients had received lethal doses of potassium and anesthetics administered voluntarily. Doctor Péchier did not take care of them but had been called to revive some of them.
Frédéric Péchier always proclaims his innocence. “Why would I do such a thing? Under the pretext of adrenaline, (…) I would have fun injecting toxic products into people, then going to resuscitate them? It’s completely absurd”, was indignant the doctor in an interview given in March 2017 to The Republican East.
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