Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - November 13, 2000
Elizabeth Bryant
The two-day hearing focuses on a lawsuit filed by 55 parties, including hemophiliacs and victims rights groups, who are charging more than two dozen civil servants and medical officials with "poisoning" -- a charge normally handled in France's criminal court.
The case is the third major lawsuit that began with 1985 charges against top government officials for not doing enough to prevent the transfusion of AIDS-tainted blood in medical centers.
More than 4,000 people are believed to have contracted the AIDS virus from blood transfusions during the 1980s, and hundreds have since died.
At issue has been how much the French government knew about the AIDS virus 20 years ago, and what it could have done to properly screen blood transfusions.
Last year, two former French ministers, former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, and Former Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix, were acquitted of manslaughter. A third, former Heath Minister Edmond Herve, was convicted, but not sentenced.
In 1993, four health and blood-bank officials were tried and sentenced in charges involving the poisoning of 32 people. Most were hemophiliacs who contracted AIDS through blood transfusions.
Now, the Paris appeals court is examining larger questions surrounding whether the blood charges involve poisoning or involuntary homicide, whether they are a civil or a criminal matter -- and even whether to dismiss them or continue legal proceedings.
Of the 30 defendants, French judge Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy earlier ruled that the actions of 13 met the criteria of poisoning. Another 17 were charged with involuntary homicide or violence.
But state prosecutor Jean Martin called for all the defendants to be tried on involuntary homicide charges, arguing that poisoning presumes a deliberate act.
In June, French lawmakers also began reviewing a proposed law that would redefine non-deliberate acts, and make it more difficult to take public officials to court.
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