• For the past six weeks, one of the most anticipated trials of the year has been held in Marseille: that of Lionel Guedj, a dentist accused of dental mutilation.

  • For the hundred or so victims who have attended the proceedings since the beginning, this trial is an opportunity to accept their fate and to share their pain with others.

They are there, at the back of the huge room built for this extraordinary hearing, in order to welcome them, the 327 civil parties, always surrounded by volunteers from the Association for the Assistance of Victims of Delinquency (Avad ).

For six weeks, dozens and dozens of victims have diligently attended the Guedj trial, named after this Marseille dentist from the northern districts accused of having massively mutilated his patients for commercial purposes.

Many are these victims who, sitting on this bench of the civil parties, still suffer serious consequences from their passage with the doctors Guedj.

Also, over the hours spent listening, waiting, sometimes being moved or indignant, the trial has become a human experience for these dented men and women.

"For a month and a half, I've been able to talk about things I didn't even talk to my own family," breathes Frédérique.

I really thought I was the only one going through this.

“But we realize that we were not the only ones to undergo these treatments.

“And little by little, we become a family,” says Zohra.

“Several of us come to this trial to support each other in our misfortune,” says Louisa.

“I am much less stressed in my head”

A way especially for these victims to become aware of what they have suffered.

"Me, before, I didn't know that teeth were such an important thing," says Michel.

Something vital.

I learned that through the trial.

"I don't want to lose a crumb of this trial," continues Zohra.

I absolutely want to see everything because I am looking for a little compassion in Lionel Guedj.

I felt very guilty for having sent my husband.

I also cried all the tears in my body when the young girl came to testify the other day, explaining that he had touched her when she was only 13 years old.

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 “The victims have found the resource to come and testify, to teach lessons in resilience and dignity.

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For fifteen days, a hundred people followed one another at the bar of the Marseille criminal court to tell what the public prosecutor Michel Sastre will describe during his indictment as a "nightmare".

“The victims have found the resource to come and testify, to teach lessons in resilience and dignity.

“A compulsory passage experienced as a real anguish for some.

"I had nightmares of all that," says Abdelhamid.

I no longer slept.

And after testifying, I felt relieved.

Since then, I am much less stressed in my head.

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There now remains a single obsession for these victims, the same leitmotif that returns after only a few minutes of conversation.

“I hope he will do a bit of prison all the same”, breathes Noël.

“But hey, we learned that it was the same judge who judged Guérini, laughs Michel.

When I knew that, I told myself that it was going to do it!

“Céline Ballérini has indeed, among other things, presided over the trial of the former senator of Bouches-du-Rhône.

“She is great this president, rejoices Frédérique.

She is really human, and attentive.

This Monday, the public prosecutor requested ten years in prison against Lionel Guedj, the maximum sentence, and four years in prison against his father, also his partner.

Judgment will be delivered on September 8.

Justice

Marseille: Ten years in prison required against the dentist accused of mutilation and "a Machiavellian plan"

Society

Marseille: "I never had the will to mutilate", the difficult exercise of contrition by dentist Lionel Guedj

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