Stéphane Burgatt with AFP 09:10, May 26, 2023

Thursday in Marseille was held the appeal trial of former dentists Carnot and Lionel Guedj, father and son, convicted in first instance for mutilating the teeth of hundreds of patients. The son Guedj, the main defendant, was absent for health reasons. A medical examination ordered by the court will determine whether he is fit to appear.

Lionel Guedj, this Marseille dentist prosecuted, alongside his father, for having mutilated hundreds of patients, is he fit to appear for five weeks? Answer Tuesday, after the medical expertise ordered at the opening of his appeal trial, Thursday in Marseille. The Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence, installed in the extraordinary trial room of the judicial court of the Phocaean city, has indeed responded to the request of his lawyer. The trial was postponed to Tuesday 9:15, the time that an expert assesses if the health of the former dentist, aged 43, is compatible with this new judicial round supposed to last until the end of June.

Lionel Guedj and his father Carnot had appealed their heavy sentence in September, to eight years in prison for the first, five years for the second, sentences accompanied by a permanent ban from practicing the profession of dentist. Carnot Guedj, 71, released in March pending this second trial but under strict judicial control, was present Thursday in Marseille, among dozens of black robes that defend the 319 civil parties of this resounding case.

"The case has gone on long enough"

Emaciated face, gray polo, he declined his identity. His son, detained in Draguignan (Var) since his conviction, was therefore absent, a medical certificate from the prison services ensuring that he was not in a state to be "extracted". Suffering from a cardiac pathology, he has been hospitalized in a hospital unit for detainees since May 23. He has a pacemaker that should have been replaced this fall and, according to his lawyer, Julien Pinelli, he would have made a discomfort in his cell in mid-May.

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The continuation of the trial is therefore temporarily suspended to this expertise. But the court remains sovereign and could decide to continue the proceedings, even if the medical expert concludes that he is not fit to appear.

"The case has lasted long enough" and these hearings are "difficult to organize" from a logistical point of view, noted the attorney general, Patrice Ollivier-Maurel. On the side of the victims' lawyers, one suggested that he appear by videoconference. Another, Me Gilles Martha, lawyer of the health insurance, who estimates his damage at 1.450 million euros in this case, wondered about the true intentions of Lionel Guedj: "to evade"? "This is not a waiver of appearance," Pinelli said.

They promised their customers "a star smile"

But in the room, the dozens of victims were buzzing with outraged reactions. And some boos even rose when Carnot's lawyer blurted out: "In a criminal trial, the weakest parties are the defendants." Because for the former patients, to whom Lionel Guedj had promised a "star smile", time is running out, especially for compensation, still ongoing in parallel. "He appealed, so you have to start all over again. We are waiting to be treated, to be compensated," said Lamia Hammami. Coming to the Guedj cabinet for a piece of tooth pulled, this elegant woman had found herself with 13 devitalized teeth and eight implants: "a massacre" for her.

To date, only 26 victims have been compensated by the Victims' Guarantee Fund, for an average amount of about 26,000 euros, although the amounts vary enormously depending on the seriousness of each situation. And 71 have received provisions of compensation, told AFP the judicial court of Marseille, confirming information from the newspaper Le Monde.

The Guedj firm was established in 2005 in the deprived neighborhoods of northern Marseille, with a population exempted from advancing the share of care reimbursed by health insurance. Becoming in 2010 the best paid dentist in France, he drove a Ferrari, granted himself between 65,000 and 80,000 euros in monthly income and had accumulated a wealth of 13 million euros.

According to a calculation by the prosecution during the first trial, this young friendly dentist had devitalized 3,900 healthy teeth between 2006 and 2012, without any therapeutic justification, on 327 patients, for the sole purpose of placing them with highly remunerative bridges.