The noose is tightening. The president of the Paris Bar Association, Me Olivier Cousi, confirmed to AFP on Wednesday November 10 the opening, the day before, of a disciplinary investigation against lawyer Fabrice Di Vizio, who could lead to sanctions – the most severe going as far as disqualification or deregistration.
Fabrice Di Vizio has been increasing massive appeals against the government’s management of the health crisis for more than a year, inspiring the skepticism of some of his peers. According to a source close to the case at AFP, the disciplinary procedure is particularly aimed at his virulent statements. In mid-September, franceinfo had also indicated that ” complaints from unhappy customers [avaient] been received by the Board “. ” radically wrong “, disputes Me Di Vizio.
“I am accused of having spoken of health apartheid”
On Twitter, Di Vizio blasted the creation of the Bar Council’s “Social Networks and Media” commission. ” The defenders of freedom set up a censorship commission while criticizing Poland and coming to the defense of Belarusian lawyers prevented from speaking, to track down the statements of lawyers on the [réseaux sociaux] and the media! “, he estimated. Contacted by AFP, he judged the procedure against him ” inadmissible “.
After the trial of the doctor’s freedom of expression here is finally that of the lawyer!@Lawyers_Parisdo not like@Cyrilhanouna! 😂 Massimo Bianchi is a cutter registered with the Marseille bar! With the 25 lawyers who are by our side, we are finally going to have fun! pic.twitter.com/YQA8QsWViH
— Fabrice Di Vizio (@DIVIZIO1) November 10, 2021
In a video, Di Vizio promised to return at greater length to the facts of which the Council of the Bar Association accuses him, in a live on Twitch which he plans to give Thursday, November 11 at 8:30 p.m. I am criticized for my way of expressing myself, because I said “fool” and “cunt” on the set of Cyril Hanouna. […] I am criticized for having spoken of health apartheid, that this expression is not in conformity with the principle of delicacy. […] I am criticized for being indignant at discrimination in access to care… You see, I am a bad boy “, lamented the lawyer. ” When we want to kill freedom of expression, we say that we abuse it, extraordinary. »
Close to Hanouna and Philippot
A regular guest on Cyril Hanouna’s Touche pas à mon poste (C8) show, he has also often appeared alongside the leader of the “Patriots”, Florian Philippot, who boasts to AFP of a man ” passionate in his fight and demanding in his argument “. In his hunting list, Me Di Vizio can include his complaints filed for several doctors and individuals who contributed to the opening of a judicial investigation at the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) in July 2020 aimed in particular at Edouard Philippe, Olivier Véran and Agnès Buzyn, on the management of the health crisis. The former Minister of Health was indicted in early September for “endangering the lives of others”.
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Fabrice Di Vizio has also made a name for himself with his massive class actions and appeals. Several thousand complaints have thus arrived in a few weeks at the CJR about the management of the Covid-19 epidemic. They are ” accessible online, on Me Di Vizio’s website. There are four models, concerning different facts and ministers “, noted in September a judicial source to AFP. This “ legal harassment “, as the lawyer calls it himself, is a well-established practice, according to former clients.
Methods “not in accordance with ethical rules”
“ He told doctors to do actions at twenty or at fifty “, remembers, with AFP, doctor Jérôme Marty, president of the French Union for a free medicine (UFML) represented by the lawyer between 2013 and 2015. “ It was 50 to 100 euros per person. Members paid several times and complained that it did not succeed. “During the summer, when Emmanuel Macron announced the generalization of the health pass and the vaccination obligation for caregivers, Me Di Vizio introduced two appeals: 1.20 euros per signatory against the pass and between 100 and 300 euros depending professional categories against compulsory vaccination.
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The system was even industrialized a little later thanks to a website on which there are models of complaints and appeals. A method ” misleading “, disputes a former member of the council of the Bar Association in Paris. “ He appeals for 2 euros against decisions of the Constitutional Council, before the Council of State, when he knows that it will not work. Legally, a decision of the Constitutional Council is not contestable “.
Another lawyer, a specialist in public health, challenges his practices “ do not comply with ethical rules “. Me Di Vizio had already been sanctioned by his peers in July 2015, according to a source close to the case at AFP: 18 months ban on practicing the profession of lawyer, reduced to six months suspended on appeal in September 2016 .
Fiercely Antivax
To his more than 130,000 Twitter followers, he distills commentary profusely on his legal remedies, punctuated with anti-vaccination messages. I will die of the Covid if necessary but I will not be vaccinated. Between living like a coward and dying with honor, my choice is made “, he launched in July. On his website, the lawyer claims to have treated ” sensitive and complex files, ranging from Mediator to the H1N1 flu “. He often defends health professionals who oppose government decisions.
Me Di Vizio is also the lawyer for the controversial Professor Didier Raoult in a disciplinary file before the Order of Physicians of New Aquitaine, which examined two complaints in early November. The list of his outrages is long, but the lawyer likes to compare compulsory vaccination to rape: ” It is rape, because it is an act done under duress. […] You are forced to harm the integrity of your body “, he said in particular.
In mid-September, he had considered, in public on Twitter, to dismiss one of his collaborators who had been forced to be vaccinated as part of a professional trip. “ The collab deserves dismissal! When you are not able to assume your convictions and you accept the constraint, you have nothing to do with me! I don’t care if she’s vaccinated, but at some point you assume your convictions and stop saying it’s someone else’s fault! “, he had lambasted.
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