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In the event, Le Ribault was whisked away—not by his friends experimentation in biology and advertising a medicine in the but by a jubilant police posse. press. Le Ribault did not consider himself guilty of any of these And so, by accident, the most frightening part of Le Ribault's further charges. journey began. Of the charge that he was not a doctor, Le Ribault could say "I was sent immediately to jail. I was taken first to the only that his qualification, that of Doctor of Science, is the highest Bordeaux station of the Regional Crime Squad, from where the awarded by a university in France. He also made the point that police called the judge dealing with my case. They said to him, any biologist and similar natural scientist who wished to emulate "Victory! We have caught Le Ribault'." Pasteur, himself not a doctor, stood a good chance of being The judge declined to hear Le Ribault's case that day and so thrown in prison in modern France. Ribault was taken to Gradignan prison. Following Le Ribault's arrest, the authorities made a number of The next day, Le Ribault was taken before the judge for a 10- statements relating to G5; one, very much in his favour, was an minute hearing. Despite the fact that the only complaint against —_ assurance that the substance was completely non-toxic. him was, he thought, a civil complaint from the Order of Doctors Desperate to get Le Ribault out of this nightmare backwater, his and the Order of Pharmacists, the judge ordered that Le Ribault be lawyer made an application to the High Court for his release. ept in prison. In answer to his lawyer's "I was released by the High Court, but the rotests that in prison his client would be in judges reserved their opinion and gave it two danger from men whom he had helped con- days after the hearing, which meant that I vict, the judge ruled that Le Ribault be kept . . . was an extra three days in prison—three days in solitary confinement. The scientist, medical in which I did not know whether I would be What worried Le Ribault as he was taken scientist or doctor, released," says Le Ribault. ack to the jail was the fact that no time The court imposed strict conditions on his limit had been put on his imprisonment. The forced to work beyond bail upon his release; he had to surrender his judge, who was clearly "building a case", the orthodoxy and passport and report to the police station twice had said only that with Christmas coming up . a week. his schedule would be full and he would not subjected to powerful Released from prison, Le Ribault stayed e able to hear the case. Le Ribault was also H H idi first with a friend; but two months after he'd concerned that the judge who had been manipulation, ridicule, settled there he received a phone call from a selected to hear his case had been one of the sabotage and/or police friend, informing him that police offi- main customers for his forensic ser- AA A A cers were on their way to arrest him. vices when he worked for the police— criminalisation, Five minutes later, with Le Ribault a judge known throughout Bordeaux, 1s becoming an watching from the garden, six police according to Le Ribault, to be "a crazy A A officers raided his friend's house. judge; very strange, very dangerous". increasingly common He went next to stay with another Early on the day of his arrest, Le figure in contemporary friend, but the next day Le Ribault drama as well as in real life. Ribault had had five teeth extracted. noticed police cars observing the Now, as he entered solitary confine- address. This time, he decided to make ment, he was not only uncomfortable his way to Belgium. and isolated but also unable to eat. In "It took me one month to get to the the depths of winter, with snow falling Belgian border, where I was hidden in a outside and no heating inside, Le police station by a friend who was an Ribault served his solitary confinement officer of the gendarmerie. The police- in a cell which had next to no glass in man drove me over the Belgian frontier, the windows. Two fingers on one hand using his police papers. From there I and both his feet became frozen, and consequently he now has rang Belgium friends and spent four months in an isolated house trouble walking any distance. "The cold was the worst problem, in the middle of the Ardennes forest." even greater than not knowing when I would be released." From Belgium, Le Ribault went secretly to England and from The deprivations which Le Ribault suffered in a contemporary there to Jersey. He was now very aware of his position as a man French prison sound echoes of Solzynitsin. As with many pris- without a home or a public identity. Although he does not men- ons, the old systems had fallen into disuse or been adapted by the tion it, he must frequently weigh up his situation in light of his screws. Every cell had a bell in case of emergency, but the guards early brilliant career. had switched them off because of the continuous noise. "My friends have helped me because I have absolutely nothing. To get help, prisoners had to push a piece of paper between the I have no money, no relatives. I am an illegal person, a stateless door and the doorjamb which could be seen in the corridor. This, alien.” Le Ribault says, was "alright as long as the officers liked you; if they didn't, you could wait a thousand hours". The judge allowed | AN INCREASINGLY COMMON DRAMA Le Ribault visits from only two working colleagues, specifically Dr Loic Le Ribault's story reads in part like a Walt Disney film excluding his partner. in which the boffin-like scientist, after some hocus-pocus in the all ali je ° dad The scientist, medical scientist or doctor, forced to work beyond the orthodoxy and subjected to powerful manipulation, ridicule, sabotage and/or criminalisation, increasingly common figure in contemporary drama as well as in real life. AN INCREASINGLY COMMON DRAMA Dr Loic Le Ribault's story reads in part like a Walt Disney film in which the boffin-like scientist, after some hocus-pocus in the laboratory, discovers a "cure-all elixir" and is then hounded, chemical flask in hand, by men in black hats. From another perspective, however, his story reads in shades of the darkest noir, a synthesis of classic contemporary dramas in RELEASE AND ESCAPE FROM FRANCE At his second and last hearing before the magistrate, Le Ribault discovered that more complaints had accumulated in his file. The charges had grown from two civil complaints to include nine criminal charges, such as the selling of a toxic substance, illegal 24 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2005 is becoming an Continued on page 74 www.nexusmagazine.com