Stéphane Burgatt and AFP 11:41 am, March 01, 2022

Monday opened in Marseille the trial of the former dentist Lionel Guedj.

Now struck off, he is suspected of having mutilated a large number of patients from poor neighborhoods in Marseille.

So on the first day of the hearing, the tension was palpable for the victims who had been waiting for years.

The tension was palpable Monday in Marseille on the first day of the trial of two dentists, father and son, accused of having enriched themselves on the back of the "Secu" by botching operations on 322 patients, mutilated for life for some.

And the anger of the victims was not calmed by the regrets expressed by the main defendant.

"This file haunts me day and night (...), I hear the suffering of my patients and it hurts me", tried to justify himself Lionel Guedj, 41, at the request of his lawyer, Me Frédéric Monneret.

"I never said that I was infallible, but I always did for the best. I never wanted to harm them, I was proud to treat people in the northern districts (Editor's note: the most most popular in the city), even if they had no money, I did the work. (...) But my patients were like my family", he said at the end of the day , conceding only that “certain therapeutic choices (…) were not judicious” and led him “to failure”.

"He lives like a pasha"

At the start of the morning, Lionel Guedj and his father Carnot Guedj, 70, dressed soberly - caps and jackets over trousers and gray sweaters - had taken their place, via a back door, in the front row of a specially equipped 400-seat room. in an old barracks, without saying a word.

The two men are prosecuted for "fraud" and "willful violence resulting in mutilation or permanent disability".

The Order of Dental Surgeons has already struck them off.

Willful action or negligence?

This is what is at stake in this trial, recalled President Céline Ballerini, recalling that a "mutilation", a voluntary action having permanently damaged the physical integrity of a victim, was punishable by 10 years in prison.

On the benches of the civil parties, a hundred of their 322 victims were there.

They had been waiting for ten years to recount their suffering and obtain redress.

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"How do you expect me to keep calm when I've been waiting for the trial for ten years. And he drives a Maserati, he has a sailboat, eleven apartments... He's outside, he lives like a pasha and he is arrogant. How do you want us not to live with nerves. I hate it, every night I take an anti-depressant to sleep, otherwise I'm freaking out, "reacted Kamel at the microphone of Europe 1.

Many patients from working-class neighborhoods

Many insults rang out, forcing the president to intervene: "That you have waited a long time for this trial, that this moment is important for you, I can understand that", but "under no circumstances will manifestations of animosity be accepted, threats or comments,” she warned.

A warning that she will however have to repeat several times, in particular to calm the reactions of the room when Carnot Guedj explains that "his pleasure as a dentist (was) to work in the chair for the well-being of people".

Sure of himself, responding with aplomb and in a rapid flow to the questions of the president, Lionel Guedj returned to his first collaborations in a dental office, during his studies.

"I replaced two dentists on my own for two months," he says brazenly.

Seeming overcome by emotion, he then recounted how his career was almost cut short due to cancer.

It was then that his father, who had spent a large part of his career in health insurance centers where few incidents were held against him, came to help him on a part-time basis.

Then, Carnot Guedj finally joined forces with his son as his troubles began.

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.

And Lionel Guedj promised them "a star's smile".

"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," said Yamina Abdesselem, 60.

"Today, I have no more teeth, and I live with two braces that hold together with a lot of glue. Why did he do that?".

"In three months, he made my whole mouth. He sharpened all my teeth and he devitalized 13 teeth. He massacred my mouth," added another patient, Lamia Hammami.

The trial is scheduled until April 8.