From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., this Tuesday, five former patients of Doctor El Absi took turns before the Charente Assize Court. A second trial, almost two years after the first, where the radiologist had received 17 years of criminal imprisonment, before appealing. Three alleged victims reported digital penetration into the anus this Tuesday. At the end of the hearing, Bassam El Absi, who spoke at length for the first time since the start of the trial, denied these penetrations.
Amélie (her first name has been changed) recounted a sexual assault in 2016, during her first meeting with Doctor El Absi. She came for an ultrasound prescribed by her general practitioner. The young woman, 25 years old at the time, then recounts a first request which surprised her, as soon as she entered the office: that of undressing completely. She refuses, keeps her panties and bra on, and sits down on the table. The doctor then examines her using a probe that he passes over her stomach. Nothing very conclusive, he believes. For him, his patient suffers from constipation. He then shows her breathing techniques to “unblock” the colon.
“You are the only doctor to ask this”
Bassam El Absi then places his hand above the patient's abdomen, and asks her to come and touch her by inflating her belly. “You are the only doctor who asks this,” comments Amélie, who reports this response: “It’s because the others are too shy.” The doctor then began to massage her stomach, which he admitted at the hearing this Tuesday, for the first time, where he previously claimed not to have touched her.
On the other hand, Bassam El Absi refutes Amélie's story in the minutes that follow. Because, according to the patient, the massage goes much further. According to her, the radiologist massages her breasts under her bra, her hips, her buttocks… He then places his patient's legs on his shoulders, and finds himself facing her, between her thighs. “I thought he was going to rape me,” says Amélie. She then describes a state of astonishment, says her “shame” not being able to scream. She explains feeling her doctor's pelvis moving back and forth, feeling him against her penis. She, who has never had sexual intercourse, thinks she feels him erect.
The young woman takes her things and gets dressed. And there, “I remember it like it was yesterday, he told me 'Don't tell your family, not your friends'”, says Amélie. She finally spoke about it a few minutes later to her brother, who was training to be a caregiver. He calls their doctor, then the young woman will file a complaint with the police.
The doctor mentions a lack of libido due to erection problems
This Tuesday, in Angoulême, Bassam El Absi watered down a large part of this story. His patient's legs on his shoulders? No, he replies, even if he admits to having asked her to bend her legs to see better. An erection felt by the patient? Impossible, he retorts, referring to erectile problems confirmed at the hearing by a forensic doctor. The latter still evokes possible swelling of the penis, without stiffness, but could pass for an erection to a person inexperienced in sexual matters. But was he excited about the situation? He gets confused at first, talks about the times when he meets women in the street “dark and beautiful”… taking as an example the lawyer, who thanks him ironically. Before asserting that no, he did not have a libido at that moment.
This sentence “the others [médecins] are too shy” ? He doesn't remember saying it, but imagines it was a joke. “I can joke”, he said, invoking a tradition in the medical field to play down situations. He also apologizes for having described the patient as hysterical during a confrontation before the Order of Physicians. “I was not fair to her, I was too quick in my defense”he concedes.
But then why, beyond analyzing the x-rays, did he practice breathing exercises, the president asks? “A radiologist doesn’t have to do that,” will also say a colleague and ex-colleague interviewed by video. “Maybe I’m outgrowing my role as a 2020s radiologist,” recognizes Bassam El Absi, speaking of methods “old school”, he who was 65 years old at the time and who evokes a desire to “do a service”. In the meantime, eight years after the events, Amélie, her voice still full of anger, still says her “fear of staying alone at home in the evening”, his demands to consult only female doctors. “I lost my sister that day”, says his brother.
“Maybe I behaved badly”, Bassam El Absi said in the preamble, thin voice, hands crossed in front of him. He recognizes a lack of explanations and communication on his part with his patients and “awkward gestures”. A beginning of mea culpa, very insufficient, to hear the murmurs and blows on the benches of the civil parties. The former radiologist will continue his explanations this Wednesday.
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