Center for body donation: the former president of the University of Paris-Descartes indicted

The former president of the University of Paris-Descartes, Frédéric Dardel, was indicted on Friday in the investigation into the scandal of the Center for the donation of bodies, paving the way for the implication of other senior officials after those of employees.

Frédéric Dardel, president of the University between early 2012 and 2019, was indicted Friday for "attacking the integrity of a corpse", AFP learned from a source close to the case, confirmed by a judicial source.

"Indecent conditions"

"Over the seven years that his mandate will have lasted", which began in early 2012, "Frédéric Dardel was only indicted in his capacity as president over a period of two years", noted his lawyer, Me Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard. "Yet he has never ceased to request the granting of credits ... In particular for the repair of the Center for the donation of bodies, in vain, which shows, as for other essential public services, the manifest negligence of the 'State,' she added.

Dilapidated premises, rotten remains eaten by mice, suspicion of the commodification of bodies ... In an article published at the end of November 2019, the weekly L'Express denounced the "indecent conditions" of conservation of the remains of "thousands of people with donates their bodies to science ".

These revelations had led the Minister of Research Frederique Vidal to order the closure of the "temple of French anatomy", founded in 1953 and which hosted several hundred bodies each year.

After this closure, Frédéric Dardel became in September 2019 "special advisor" to the minister's office, then since September 2020, director of a CNRS research unit.

Two preparers already indicted

Initially, the judicial information opened in July 2020 focused on the employees of the center, the "preparers", responsible for the daily management of the remains before their use for experiments. In June 2020, an administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and the General Inspectorate for Sports Education and Research (Igésr) had indeed evoked a "loss of benchmarks (...) both among the preparers and among those involved "on the bodies and wondered about a" desire to harm or harm the corpses "of" certain preparers ".

At least two of them were indicted, Maurice A. in December and Jean-Rémy H. in April.

The first, an employee of the center until the beginning of the 2010s, was implicated in particular after the discovery at his home of "various bones" and jewelry.

The second, described as a controversial figure in internal emails to which AFP had access, was the head of the preparatory team at least until early 2018. 

The University of Paris indicted on April 15

But the investigation, as requested by the more than 170 complainants, from the families of people who donated their bodies, is now targeting officials.

The administrative report indeed indicated that the Paris-Descartes University was responsible for "serious ethical breaches": "The importance and repetition" of alerts, "at different levels and according to different vectors, contrast with the lack of reaction up to the seriousness of the facts reported until 2018 ".

The University of Paris, a new entity resulting from the merger in January 2020 of Paris-Descartes and Paris-Diderot, was thus indicted on April 15 for "undermining the integrity of a corpse".

At first, the University had tried to become a civil party.