Overview
- The Paris correctional court declined on September 16 to transmit a constitutional question, allowing the criminal trial to resume the same day.
- Roughly a dozen elderly members of Ultime Liberté are charged with acquiring, possessing and importing pentobarbital, which is illegal for human use in France and permitted only in veterinary care.
- Prosecutors say the group helped dozens of people obtain the drug between 2018 and 2020 via an encrypted messaging service, with charges tied to drug trafficking rather than incitement to suicide.
- The prosecutor warned against turning the courtroom into a political forum and described pentobarbital as a particularly dangerous psychotropic that should be under international control.
- The hearings are scheduled through October 9, and the defense is leveraging the proceedings to push for legal change as the Senate’s consideration of assisted-dying legislation—initially slated for October 7—now faces timing doubts after the Bayrou government’s fall.