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Péchier Takes the Stand, Denies Poisonings as Besançon Trial Enters Third Week

His first interrogation focuses on the Simard case, with prosecutors casting his emergency calcium injection as incriminating.

Frédéric Péchier devant la cour d’assises de Besançon, le 8 septembre 2025.
Frédéric Péchier, proche du tribunal de Besançon.
L'ex-anesthésiste Frédéric Péchier arrive à la Cour d'assises de Besançon, le 9 septembre 2025
L'ex-anésthésiste Frédéric Péchier, soupçonné de 30 empoisonnements de patients, est jugé aux assises, à Besançon.

Overview

  • Frédéric Péchier spoke at length for the first time about the facts, acknowledging a poisoned infusion in the Simard incident but insisting he did not contaminate it.
  • He defended administering calcium gluconate during Simard’s cardiac arrest as part of his usual emergency practice, countering experts who called the choice inexplicable without knowing of potassium poisoning.
  • Prosecutors maintain he orchestrated 30 poisonings between 2008 and 2017 in two Besançon clinics to harm rival colleagues, including 12 cases that proved fatal.
  • His questioning is set to continue with the Gandon file, where investigators allege a mepivacaine poisoning and point to a time window when only Péchier or a trainee nurse could have injected a toxin.
  • The former anesthetist remains free during the proceedings, faces a potential life sentence, and the court has scheduled hearings through 19 December.