France has launched one of its biggest-ever trials as five managers from the company PIP face charges of selling faulty breast implants that sparked a global health scare.
Hundreds of women who received the faulty implants gathered in a makeshift courthouse in Marseilles, in the south of France.
Jean-Claude Mas, who founded and ran implant-maker Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), is among those on trial.
The now-defunct company had claimed its factory in France exported to more than 60 countries and was one of the world's leading implant makers.
More than 125,000 women worldwide received them until sales ended in March 2010.
Of those, more than 5,000 are joining the trial as victims, saying the executives misled them into believing the implants were safe.
The trial is so big that a convention centre was turned into a courtroom The executives are charged with aggravated fraud for using industrial-grade silicone in implants, which health officials say are prone to rupture and leaking.
Mas, his deputy Claude Couty, the quality director Hannelore Font, technical director Loic Gossart, and products chief Thierry Brinon face the possibility of five years in prison if convicted.
Some of the defendants, including Mas, have also been charged in separate and ongoing manslaughter and financial fraud investigations into the scandal.
Mas was booed when he took to the stand to state his name and profession at the start of the proceedings in the convention centre, which was turned into a courthouse to host all those participating in the trial.
Nathalie De Michel, who received the implants, said she wanted Mas to acknowledge responsibility.
"I want him at least to recognise that he made mistakes. When you fight against cancer, you fight to survive, and if after they put some garbage in your body, what's the point of fighting for life?"
The vast majority of the implants were for cosmetic reasons, the rest were for breast reconstruction, often following cancer surgery.
PIP breast implants used cheap industrial silicone, officials say Within France, about a quarter of the implants malfunctioned, most by rupturing and leaking silicone, according to a government tally released this month.
The French government recommended that women have their PIP implants removed as a precaution.
In Britain, the government left the choice up to women and their doctors, but recommended that the implants be removed if there was a sign of rupture.
Doctors and scientists who have followed the case say medical complications stemming from the ruptures and leaks appear to be limited even when the implants rupture, with rashes and localised pain the most common complaints.
But lawyers for the women say the full effects will not be known for years to come.
The PIP company has gone out of business, and regulators across Europe have called for tighter oversight of medical devices.
Mas has said he is ruined financially.
Mas was in jail for eight months for unpaid bail, but was freed in October According to various government estimates, over 42,000 women in Britain received the implants, more than 30,000 in France, 25,000 in Brazil and 15,000 in Colombia.
Venezuela, where PIP implants were hugely popular, offered free removals for the estimated 16,000 women with the implants, as did France.
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