Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Friday February 26, 1999
Nicolas Marmie, Associated Press Writer
The president of the Court of Justice of the Republic, who has been critical of media coverage of the trial, asked journalists not to publish articles, editorials or polls that might influence the judges.
The three judges and 12 legislators who make up the court are expected to hand down their verdict March 9. It is the first time in France since World War II that ministers are being tried for their official acts.
Former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, former Health Minister Edmond Herve and former Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix are charged with manslaughter in the AIDS deaths of five people and with "attacking the integrity of a person" in the infection of two others still alive.
The seven were infected in 1985 after receiving blood transfusions contaminated with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS.
It was the lawyers for Fabius, now speaker of parliament, who battled Friday for his honor.
"Laurent Fabius acted with speed, foresight, diligence and authority," said lawyer Bernard de Bigaut du Granrut. "Not only is Laurent Fabius innocent, he acted well and nobody in his place could have done better."
The tainted-blood scandal has dragged on for 11 years.
There have been four previous trials, in which health officials have been convicted.
This is the first trial of top government ministers in the quest to determine responsibility for France's worth public health scandal.
Nearly 4,000 people in France contracted AIDS from transfusions in the early 1980s. An experts' report in 1991 showed that some 300 were "avoidable." The trial focuses on a critical period in 1985.
The ministers face up to five years in prison and a $90,000 fine on the first count and up to three years in prison and $55,000 fine on the second.
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