The former senior executive of the French company at the centre of a breast implant scandal affecting tens of thousands of women worldwide has been arrested, police said today.
In the first arrests since the two-year-old scandal grabbed headlines worldwide in December, Jean-Claude Mas, and a second executive at his now defunct company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) were seized at their homes in southern France shortly after dawn.
The men could be charged with manslaughter, the public prosecutor in the city of Marseille said. If charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing injury, both could face longer prison terms than those they already risk in a parallel fraud case due to come to court around October.
French authorities have been criticised for being slow to react to a case that has sown fear among tens of thousands of women who carry PIP implants.
French inspectors ordered them off the market in March 2010, due to concerns over their quality. But officials in Paris only last month recommend their surgical removal, drawing attention to the problem for patients worldwide who had been fitted with products from the company, which was at one time the third-biggest global supplier.
Lawyers for women in France who have filed complaints over PIP implants welcomed the arrests and said there must be no escaping justice for the Mr Mas (72), who has been quoted as deriding those suing him as being motivated only by money.
"This is a comfort for the victims," said Laurent Gaudon, whose clients are pursuing PIP and surgeons who used its implants for fraud. "It's the feeling that justice is advancing and they have not been forgotten. It's the assurance that the guilty are at last going to be held accountable." Philippe Courtois, who represents 1,300 people with PIP implants, said Mr Mas should not be freed pending any court case.
"A degree of provisionary detention is desirable," he said. Mr Mas and former PIP chief executive Claude Couty were questioned at home today as police searched their premises. They are due to be moved to police custody in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille later, under the orders of prosecutor Jacques Dallest.
PIP enjoyed years of success with international sales, but behind the scenes employees, and Mr Mas himself, have admitted to hiding from certification agencies the fact they were using cheap, industrial silicone, not approved for medical use.
Health authorities in France and elsewhere have stressed that PIP's products carry no proven link to cancer, but surgeons report that they have abnormally high rupture rates. Responses to the problem have varied among different foreign authorities.
Today's arrests follow an investigation opened in Marseille, close to PIP's former premises, on December 8th after the death from cancer in 2010 of a woman with PIP implants.
Mr Mas and Mr Couty can be held for up to 48 hours while a judge decides whether to charge them with involuntary manslaughter and causing injury and, if so, whether to continue their detention or to free them on bail conditions.
A trial date could be years away, given the extent of inquiry required, but the graver manslaughter case could make it harder for Mr Mas to avoid appearing in court later this year on other charges of fraud and deception.
Reuters