Jean-Claude Mas, PIP implant boss, released from custody
Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) boss Jean-Claude Mas (L) talks to the press as he leaves the jail of Avignon Le Pontet after a French judge ordered his release, on October 29, 2012 in Le Pontet, southern France. Mas, 73, was ordered released but will be ‘placed under judicial supervision,’ his lawyer Yves Haddad said, adding that he would be freed later today.Between 400,000 and 500,000 women around the world are believed to have received allegedly faulty breast implants made by PIP, the now-defunct company that Mas founded in southern France, as French doctors have registered 20 cases of cancer among women fitted with the implants.
Jean-Claude Mas, the CEO of French breast implant company Poly Implant Prothese, has been released from custody under court supervision pending his trial next year.
Mas' company was marred in scandal after it was found that they used subgrade materials to manufacture their implants, which were thus prone to rupturing. The company was shuttered in 2010, BBC News reported.
The 73-year-old former head of PIP was jailed in southeastern France in March after he failed to post bail. He has been released under the conditions that he stay within Var and Bouches-du-Rhone regions and checks in once a week with his local police station, Reuters reported.
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There are between 400,000 and 500,000 women in 65 countries that are believed to have PIP implants, Agence France Presse reported. Lawyers have said that 20 women with the implants now have cancer, though they have yet to prove there is a concrete link.
Mas faces charges of causing involuntary bodily harm and aggravated fraud, and will go to court April 17 to May 14 next year, along with four other PIP executives, Reuters reported.
The trial is set to involve 180 lawyers and some 4,600 complainants, BBC reported.
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