Nicolas Best, Director of Nîmes University Hospital, Faces Criminal Charges and Removal from Position

The director of the Nîmes University Hospital, Nicolas Best, has been appearing since November 13 before the Paris Criminal Court for offenses of “favoritism” and “passive corruption”. The hearing was suspended after priority questions of constitutionality filed by his lawyers were taken into account. The man also learned that he was no longer the director of the Hospital Center.

He has been appearing since November 13 before the 32nd chamber of the Paris Criminal Court. The director of the Nîmes University Hospital Nicolas Best was heard to crimes of “favoritism” and “passive corruption”.

The hearing was suspended this Wednesday, November 15. Of the four priority questions of constitutionality filed by Nicolas Best’s lawyers, two were retained by the Paris criminal court, report our colleagues from Midi libre. According to Objectif Gard, these concern “the searches carried out at the Nîmes University Hospital”. “The defendant’s mailbox was completely sucked up by the investigators. An mailbox which necessarily contains data on patients under cover of medical confidentiality.” Investigators from the Lyon judicial police had searched in Nîmes, on February 10, 2022, the personal home of the director general of the CHU, as well as his office within the Carémeau hospital.

But this morning of the third day of the hearing, the person’s lawyers also learned that the man was no longer the director of the Nîmes University Hospital as of midnight on Thursday, November 16, reports The Nîmes gazette. “I regret to inform you that in the middle of the trial, this morning, a decree of withdrawal of functions concerning me was served on the Nîmes University Hospital for loss of confidence of the appointing authoritydeclared Nicolas Best.

► Also read: Nicolas Best, director of the Nîmes University Hospital, tried in Paris for passive corruption and favoritism.

The trial is now expected to take place at the end of August-beginning of September 2024, according to the lawyers.

The alleged facts concern the period when the man was director of the Annecy hospital, between 2015 and 2018. A file concerning his activity in Nîmes from 2018 is also targeted.