Two men, aged 22 and 29, have been sentenced to one year in prison for assaulting an SOS Médecins doctor in Lille after the sister of one of them returned home from a consultation in tears.
The two defendants, an uncle and his nephew, wearing black and white T-shirts, were found guilty of "aggravated violence" in a group, followed by incapacity not exceeding eight days.
The court followed the prosecution's recommendations and sentenced them to 12 months in prison, with a chained sentence. They were also ordered to pay €1,000 in damages for moral harm and were banned from appearing on SOS Médecins.
The attack committed late on July 2 at the Lille branch of SOS Médecins, in Lille-Moulins (south of the city) led to a strike by SOS Médecins, who spoke of a "punitive expedition."
At the hearing, they partially admitted the facts and expressed regret. According to witnesses, they allegedly called the doctor a "pedophile" several times. In court, the younger brother admitted that "there's no logic in calling him a pedophile; my sister is an adult."
With no criminal record, the two men, the older one working in the hotel industry, the younger one a student and paramedic, explained that they had come to the doctor for an explanation after the younger one learned that his 21-year-old sister had returned from a consultation in tears.
The young woman had been seen early in the afternoon for stomach pain by this doctor, who has been working for 26 years at the Lille branch of SOS Médecins.
She reportedly told her mother on the phone that the doctor had questioned her, placed his hand on her stomach, and suggested she lose weight.
She has since filed a complaint for sexual assault, the presiding judge said.
"I recognize that what was done is not something to be done, breaking into a doctor's office is something you regret," said the youngest, with thin glasses and mid-length hair.
Having overheard the telephone conversation between his sister and mother, he went to SOS Médecins with his uncle, bursting into the doctor's office and forcing the patients present to leave.
The doctor, insulted, received three blows to the forehead from the younger one, a confirmed boxer, and a blow from the palm of the older one, before another doctor made the duo flee.
"We're in a case where there's nothing but human stupidity," the victim, wearing a light-colored shirt and gray hair, told the court. "The simple act of saying no is something that's extremely painful," he added.
For Florian Munga, the lawyer for the Council of the Order of Physicians of the North and the National Order, and his colleague Julien Paternoster, this hearing was "very trying for all doctors. Doctors have a message to convey: never again."
In her closing arguments, the prosecutor stated that the defendants had offered "a superficial apology." "They arrived at SOS Médecins, used a false pretext," were "described in an aggressive tone," insulted the doctor, and told the operator "we're going to kill you." According to the prosecutor, they wanted to "settle their scores for the prerogatives they had assumed as vigilantes."
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