Victims, lawyers and judicial authorities waited Saturday to see if a doctor convicted in the contamination of 1,200 hemophiliacs will return from his Massachusetts refuge to face a four-year prison sentence.
Michel Garretta, former head of the National Blood Transfusion Center, was one of three people convicted Friday in what is known as the tainted blood scandal.The court deemed Garretta "incontestably the inspirer and director" of a policy to continue distributing blood known to be contaminated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, rather than importing expensive, specially treated stocks and demanding AIDS tests from donors.
More than 250 hemophiliacs have died since the 1985 scandal.
Authorities have not "for the moment" delivered an international arrest warrant for Garretta, a Justice Ministry official said.
Garretta, who lives in Brookline, Mass., has 10 days to present himself to file an appeal, which his lawyers said he would do. He resigned several months ago from the board of directors of Haemonetics, a company in the Boston suburb that makes blood-processing equipment.
Xavier Charvet, his lawyer, said in Brookline on Saturday that Garretta would return to France soon, confirming earlier French television reports citing Garretta's wife.
Garretta received the maximum sentence for "deception over the basic qualities of a product."
The 1909 extradition treaty between France and the United States is not applicable for crimes of deception. But U.S. authorities still could agree to extradite him, ministry sources said on condition of anonymity.
In France, the verdict brought more outrage than satisfaction.
Up to 400 lawsuits for poisoning have been filed and efforts are under way to bring former Socialist Premier Laurent Fabius and two of his ministers to trial.
"The judgment rendered yesterday will appease neither the doubt, the distrust, the anger and, even less, the thirst for justice," wrote the conservative newspaper Le Figaro.