Prosecution asks court to acquit former ministers in blood trial

The prosecution in France's contaminated blood trial yesterday asked a special court to acquit three former Socialist ministers.

They are charged with manslaughter and grievous bodily harm in the deaths of five AIDs victims and the infection of two others with the virus. The seven cases represent a tiny proportion of the 4,500 people infected by transfusions in the mid-1980s, more than 1,000 of whom have already died.

Mr Laurent Fabius, the former prime minister who is today speaker of the National Assembly, and his former health and social affairs ministers, Mr Edmond Herve and Mrs Georgina Dufoix, showed not the slightest emotion as the prosecutor, Mr Jean-Francois Burgelin, asked a jury of 12 parliamentarians and three professional judges to acquit all three defendants but administer a reprimand to Mr Herve and Mrs Dufoix.

Then Mr Burgelin turned to the front rows of the courtroom, where the families of victims have sat during the three-week trial. "The thought of their terrible fate did not leave us for one moment," he told them. As he spoke, a half dozen men and women rose and walked out of the courtroom with tears in their eyes.

"This does not mean disregard for the grief of the victims," Mr Burgelin insisted as the bereaved relatives brushed past the gendarmes at the door. "We must strictly observe the law. We cannot add another injustice to what has happened."

Outside, Mrs Agnes Gaudin wept with rage. Her sons Stephane and Laurent, both haemophiliacs, died after contracting AIDs at the ages of five and eight. "This was a shameful trial," she gasped between sobs. "We weren't even given a chance to defend ourselves." Only those connected with the seven cases considered by the court were allowed to speak, and none of the victims was allowed to sue as civil plaintiffs.

In their closing arguments, Mr Burgelin and his fellow prosecutor, Mr Roger Lucas, praised Mr Fabius but criticised Mrs Dufoix and Mr Herve, whom Mr Lucas accused of "poverty of intellect" for failing to enforce a 1983 memorandum issued by his ministry directing blood banks to reject donations from high-risk drug addicts, homosexuals and prisoners. The failure to do so gave France the highest rate of sero-positive transfusion recipients in Europe.

Mr Lucas went methodically through the charges: the slowness with which the Fabius government established mandatory AIDs testing of blood donations - allegedly because officials gave priority to a French test manufacturer over a US rival; failure to heat blood products to kill the virus; failure to recall contaminated blood stocks and failure to notify transfusion recipients that they were in danger.

On every point, Mr Lucas said there was evidence and suppositions, but no tangible proof that the ministers were aware of the mistakes they were making.

They were politically - but not criminally - responsible, he said.

The defendants' lawyers will plead today and tomorrow and a verdict is expected on March 5th. Although the politicians risk five years' imprisonment, it is extremely unlikely that a jury of their peers would go against the prosecutor's recommendation and convict them.