Paris (AFP)

"We will not let go": relatives of the deceased who have donated their bodies to science are putting all their hopes in the investigation conducted since this summer by an investigating judge on the indecent conditions of conservation of the remains at the Center du don des corps in Paris.

Exactly one year after the first revelations of the Express, six officials of the association "Charnier Descartes Justice Dignité" (CDJD) demonstrated Friday in front of the premises of what has long been considered "the temple of French anatomy" .

On white placards, the demonstrators display their messages: "Ministry, university, 1 year of silence, 1 year of cowardice";

"A given body is not an abandoned body".

On November 27, 2019, the weekly described in a chilling article dilapidated premises, rotten remains and gnawed by mice as well as suspicions of the commodification of bodies in the largest center of Europe of this type.

Quickly, the Minister of Research Frédérique Vidal ordered its closure.

Charged with an administrative investigation, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and the General Inspectorate for Sports Education and Research (Igésr) concluded in March that the Paris-Descartes University was responsible for "serious ethical breaches "for several years.

The mother of Laurence Dézélée, vice-president of the CDJD association had given his body.

"She insisted on that. I was reluctant. I wanted to respect her wishes ... The discovery of the scandal created a feeling of betrayal," she told AFP.

To date, around 170 complainants have come before the courts, according to a judicial source.

The University of Paris, a new entity resulting from the merger last January of Paris-Descartes and Paris-Diderot, has requested to become a civil party, in the name of "reputational damage".

The university "is not there to designate those responsible but not either to protect them, if it turns out that very strong alerts on mistreatment have been ignored", underlines to AFP his lawyer, Me Patrick Maisonneuve.

Main whistleblower, Dominique Hordé, former secretary general of the Center, was heard at the beginning of November as a witness by the examining magistrate Adrien Lallement, in charge since July of the investigation opened for "attacking the integrity of the corpse" .

- "Nobody wanted to see" -

“Nobody wanted to see, lots of people knew about it,” she told AFP.

Arrived in 2016, the manager tries to manage the emergency.

In messages sent to her hierarchy and consulted by AFP, she tirelessly warns about the "obsolescence" of the facilities, in turn evoking cold rooms "which have become pantries" for mice, "carts on which are piled up several bodies "or even an internal climate" of tension and violence ".

She left office in 2018. She has since been recognized as having post-traumatic stress disorder.

On November 12, the former president of Paris-Descartes University, Frédéric Dardel, was taken into custody, before being released without prosecution at this stage.

Became president at the end of 2011, he "is the first who realized, through alerts, that there was work to be done, who made them vote and obtained funding of 60 million euros", defends his lawyer, Me Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard.

"He launched these steps the first month after taking office," she said, referring to administrative inertia in which "state responsibility" is "flagrant".

Mr. Dardel "takes us for marbles!", Gets carried away Agnès Leroy, treasurer of the CDJD association.

In their report, the Igas and the Igesr underline that "the importance and the repetition" of the alerts, "at different levels and according to different vectors, contrast with the lack of reaction commensurate with the seriousness of the facts reported up to 'in 2018 ".

Will other officials be heard?

L'Express also pointed to the role played by Pr Guy Vallancien, former official in charge of several ministers of health, and by his limited company - the European School of Surgery, created in 2001 within the University.

It resold bodies in particular to manufacturers for their own tests, such as automobile crash tests.

From now on, "our wish is to see the case evolve towards the designation of possible responsibilities", comments Me Frédéric Douchez, lawyer for 80 plaintiffs.

David Artur, son of radio host José Artur, who died in 2015 and who had donated his body, said: "Those responsible must be found guilty."

© 2020 AFP