'Star' French doctor goes on trial accused of poisoning patients | International

BESAN€ON, France, Sept 8, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A French doctor goes on trial Monday accused of intentionally poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died, in an alleged attempt to show off his resuscitation skills and discredit co-workers. Frederic Pechier, 53, worked as an anaesthetist at two clinics in the eastern city of Besancon, when patients went into cardiac arrest in suspicious circumstances between 2008 to 2017. Twelve could not be resuscitated. Pechier's youngest alleged victim, who was four years old at the time, survived two cardiac arrests during a routine tonsil surgery in 2016. The doctor's oldest alleged victim was 89. The trial, held in Besancon and set to last until December, caps a seven-year investigation that stunned the medical...