Nicolas Bonnemaison arrives with his wife Julie and his lawyer Arnaud Dupinat (L) at the courthouse of Pau, southwestern France, on June 25, 2014, on the last day of his trial
AFP
A French doctor whose emotionally charged trial over the deaths of seven terminally-ill patients gripped a country where euthanasia is illegal was acquitted Wednesday to thunderous applause in the courtroom.
Nicolas Bonnemaison had faced life in prison when he went on trial in the southwestern city of Pau earlier this month but the judge announced Wednesday he "was acquitted of all charges" against him, bringing a smile to the 53-year-old's face as he held his lawyer's hand.
The verdict came just one day after France's highest administrative court authorised ending the life of a quadriplegic in a vegetative state, in a landmark decision that divided his family and was immediately blocked by the European Court of Human Rights pending a review of the case.
Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday's decision meant that the ruling Socialists had "a responsibility to develop the legislative framework", which for the moment only allows passive euthanasia but that President Francois Hollande is looking to change.
Bonnemaison, an emergency room doctor who has since been struck off the medical register, was accused of "poisoning particularly vulnerable people" -- five women and two men who died between March 2010 and July 2011 soon after being admitted to a hospital in the southwestern city of Bayonne where he worked.
His trial began on June 11 and heard intense -- and sometimes poignant -- evidence touching on compassion, the solitude of the doctor in taking decisions, the danger of his or her power and vivid descriptions of agony.