Arrived dressed soberly - caps and jackets over trousers and gray sweaters -, Lionel Guedj, 41, and his father Carnot Guedj, 70, came to take their places shortly after 10:00 a.m. on the defendants' bench, via a back door, at the front row of a 400-seat auditorium specially fitted out in a former barracks.
Without saying a word.
On the benches of the civil parties, a hundred of their 322 victims were there, who have been waiting for ten years to tell their sufferings and obtain compensation.
A crowd from which insults immediately burst out, forcing the president, Céline Ballerini, to intervene: "That you have waited a long time for this trial, that this moment is important for you, I can understand that", but "in no case No expressions of animosity, threats or comments will be accepted,” she warned.
Prosecuted, as well as their companies as legal persons, for "willful violence resulting in mutilation or permanent disability" and "fraud", the two men incur 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of some 2 million euros.
The Order of Physicians has already struck them off.
Marc Ceccaldi, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, immediately set the tone with AFP, referring to "a system of predation of patients" of which Lionel Guedj was "the figurehead, with his seduction, his commercial approach and confidence building" of its victims.
Lawyers for the civil parties in the Marseilles court at the opening of the trial of dentists Lionel and Carnot Guedj, February 28, 2022 Nicolas TUCAT AFP
Abscesses, mouth ulcers, cysts, pain, repeated infections, black mouth, bad breath, prostheses that don't hold: years after the fact, many still suffer the consequences of operations carried out on a chain, without respecting the basic rules.
23 teeth lost at 18
"I had come to see him for a tooth that was hurting me. He told me that all my teeth had to be devitalized. I trusted him. He had a nice office, he was nice. I had to do remove a piece of iron from the hospital that he had forgotten during the operation," Yamina Abdesselem, 60, told AFP before the hearing.
"Today I have no teeth left, and I live with two braces that hold together with a lot of glue. Why did he do that?"
Lawyers and plaintiffs await the opening of the trial of dentists Lionel and Carnot Guedj in the Marseilles court, February 28, 2022 Nicolas TUCAT AFP
After passing through the hands of Doctor Guedj, Sarah Chaabi, 18, had lost 23 of her teeth, devitalized without any justification.
"We said to ourselves that there would be no trial, that they weren't going to worry about us because the majority of the victims are North Africans," she told AFP. a few days ago.
"The first consultation systematically ended in a massive program of work involving devitalizing and crowning as many teeth as possible", had shown an expert report, estimating that Lionel Guedj billed 28 times more crowns than the average of his colleagues.
Established in 2005 in the working-class districts of Marseille, the Guedj practice had half of its patients at the CMU and 99% at third-party payment.
Lionel Guedj promised them "a star's smile".
Always available without an appointment, he received up to 70 patients a day, to whom he devoted barely a quarter of an hour on average, according to an expert report from the Primary Health Insurance Fund of Bouches-du-Rhône.
Fifty-seven hours a day would have been necessary for such acts.
In 2010, he became the highest paid dentist in France, he drove a Ferrari, granted himself between 65,000 and 80,000 euros in monthly income and had accumulated an estate of 13 million euros.
Me Frédéric Monneret, lawyer for dentist Lionel Guedj, arrives at the court in Marseille, February 28, 2022 Nicolas TUCAT AFP
"He has undoubtedly committed a number of faults or negligence. He is not proud of it, he admits it and he has compassion for the civil parties", explained to the press Me Frédéric Monneret, lawyer for Lionel Guedj recalling that his client disputed any "willful fault which would have been dictated by the lure of profit".
The trial is scheduled until April 8.
© 2022 AFP