Victory! David Noakes Released Today!

THE FRENCH COURT OF APPEALS GIVES ITS DECISION ON DAVID NOAKES’ IMPRISONMENT

By Scott C. Tips, NHF President

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”

— Voltaire

With this year 2021 quickly winding down, we see that NHF Chairman David Noakes – who has endured false charges and hard-core imprisonment in France for years now, all because of his noble efforts to help dying patients get well – is still in prison after 18 months. At last count David Noakes had helped some 10,000 patients survive when they had very little hope. With zero patient complaints lodged, the pharmaceutical industry itself complained about David – first in the UK and then, when that did not seem to be punishment enough, in France. Even the Swiss want to take a piece of flesh out of David.

After their four-day trial in Paris in late March 2021, David Noakes and Lynda Thyer were sentenced to four and three years in prison, respectively. Since Lynda Thyer had already served half of her sentence, she was released immediately to return home to England, where she remains to this day. David went back to Fleury-Mérogis Prison in the southern suburbs of Paris, where he has been confined in a nine-square-meter prison cell 22 hours out of 24 hours a day. .

However, with the re-trial on appeal of his French case having taken place on December 6-8, 2021, at the Palais de Justice in the heart of Paris on the Île de la Cité, the three-judge appeals court threw David a possible lifeline when it indicated that it would consider David’s attorneys pleas for his release. What follows below is the day-by-day story of what happened.

Day One of the Appellate Trial (December 6th)

Today, Monday, December 6th, was the start of the projected three-day trial of David Noakes, Lynda Thyer, and other co-defendants implicated in an alleged “gangster criminal” scheme in France to sell and distribute the natural human glyco-protein GcMAF and make patients healthy again.

The original trial last March resulted in a very predictable guilty verdict for all of the five defendants, with David Noakes having received the harshest sentence (four years in prison). The decision, announced on April 14, 2021, was immediately appealed by most of the co-defendants, but also by the French Pharmacists’ Union, which had the incredible gall to say that they had not received enough penalty money from the defendants for their “crime” of having taken business away from the drug-crazed pharmacists!

So, the trial today was mostly a rehash of events past, as read to the courtroom by the presiding female judge. To her right was another female judge, while to her left was a male judge. The presiding judge did most of the talking and asked David Noakes – the only defendant present – why he had filed the appeal (answer: his attorneys filed the appeal) and whether he was intending to go through with the trial (yes, he was). She then asked him why, to which he firmly and loudly replied, “BECAUSE I AM INNOCENT!”

There were 16 people in the courtroom today: the three judges; one prosecutor; two clerks; two gendarmes to protect us from a “serious criminal” and to shush noisemakers into silence; two interpreters; one pharmacists’ attorney to make sure blood geld was paid to their union; three defense attorneys; and one member of the public, Daniel Hofnung, a friend of the family so to speak.

The judge then read through the charges, through her mask, and out into the largish courtroom without electronic assistance, even though there was a microphone there nearby just begging to be used for a “low talker” like the judge. Held in an old courtroom with wood-paneled walls and 20-foot-high ceilings, the acoustics were terrible. Couple these bad acoustics with masks, low talking, and in a non-native (to me) language, this altogether made it hard for me to understand what was being said by her, even though my French is adequate. Nor did it help that I had only had five hours of sleep the night before. Nevertheless, the general meaning of what transpired came through.

David was given the opportunity to address the Court, which he did, telling the judges that he had given up on GcMAF as a business model from May 2015 on because the MHRA in the UK had prosecuted them 33 times, with 14 separate raids, and had seized all of the bank accounts and money in them. People died because of the MHRA’s actions, he continued.

The presiding judge next read the report, which was a report to the appellate court and tried to present a balanced view of parties’ statements and claims. This went on for quite some time, with her mentioning the GcMAF website in Sweden.

The presiding judge asked David if he disagreed with the report. David said that the report would be correct if Peter Dawson-Ball’s name were substituted in place of his own name. He also pointed out a number of places in the report where the prosecution made a claim of fact that they have now taken a position opposite to. And, he then reiterated that Lynda Thyer and he had done no GcMAF business activity in France.

But about two hours into the re-trial, a verbal altercation suddenly erupted and David’s attorney, Philippe OHAYON, jumped up to complain that the gendarme seated next to David had grabbed the report out of David’s hands that his attorney had just handed him! Maître Ohayon complained very strongly that this was not allowed and violated the attorney-client relationship. After a while, the dispute ended, but Maître Ohayon had made his point.

The presiding judge then began her general questioning of David. To the charge that he had promoted GcMAF as a “cure-all” for all diseases, David replied, “No, GcMAF only helps with 86 diseases, while there are 6,000 diseases out there, so we could hardly be holding GcMAF up as any sort of “cure-all.”

David then went on to point out that The Journal of Clinical Oncology, in one of its 2004 issues, published a report showing that 71,000 cases of chemotherapy were examined and that only in 2.2% of the cases were the persons treated still alive at the end of five years! He further pointed out that those people generally inclined to take chemotherapy are not the kind who would ever opt for GcMAF treatment instead. This latter point was made to address the charge that he was harming patients by diverting them from lovely chemotherapy into GcMAF injections instead.

The questioning of David went on for nearly three hours, with his own attorney being given the opportunity to ask questions. The trial adjourned for the day at about 7:45 p.m., to reconvene the following day, Tuesday, at 1:30 p.m.

I must give enormous thanks to all of the National Health Federation and other donors out there who contributed (in some cases greatly) to the fundraising campaigns to provide David Noakes (and Lynda Thyer) with legal defense. Special thanks go to Andrew Noakes (his son), Jessica (his daughter), Peter Noakes (his brother), the UK Column and Brian Gerrish (who were amazing), Dr. Judy Mikovits (who worked on her declaration even while her beloved husband was dying in the hospital), and French health-freedom fighters Daniel Hofnung and Sylvie Rulekowski, NHF’s Kat Carroll, all of whom either pushed this funding issue into high visibility or did the hard work that in turn made possible the crack legal defense for David & Lynda! 

Day Two of the Appellate Trial (December 7th) 

Today was a strange day for this trial. First of all, after I entered the Palais de Justice by the special port reserved for attorneys and judges (since I am an attorney), I was given the sad news that Lynda Thyer’s attorney, Maître Paul Sin Chan, had tested positive for COVID-19 and would not be able to continue in this trial. So, the three judges, upon being apprised of this change of situation, quite properly separated Lynda Thyer’s case from that of David Noakes’ and continued her trial to April 2022, for hearing at the same time as Lyn’s sister’s case, which had been continued only yesterday to a new date in April 2022. So, now this week’s trial is only about David Noakes.

David Noakes was not in the courtroom this day, but he will be in court on Wednesday for the closing arguments. However, because of David’s attorney’s exposure to Maître Sin Chan, he had to take a COVID-19 test and fortunately tested negative because the last thing we wanted was David’s case to also be postponed to April 2022, with David rotting in prison all the meanwhile.

After the Lynda Thyer trial disposition was made, Philippe Ohayon (David’s French attorney) made his motion to get David out of prison as soon as possible. The Presiding Judge read from a probation report and made several comments such as noting that David was a member of UKIP and was of the extreme right-wing (later, untrue). She further reminded everyone that David had resisted and then fled from the order for extradition to France with the comment that “if we free him, he will go away.” She also mentioned that he had some internet supporters from “Lumiére de Gaia,” whatever that is. In fact, why did any of his connections matter? The judge’s comments and mind seemed to indicate that she was against David’s release.

She then asked Maître Ohayon to present his case and for the next 40 minutes or so, he did just that – off the top of his head and in a fantastic way that was so persuasive that you could literally see the progression of the judges from almost disinterest to definite interest to then taking assiduous notes of what Ohayon said and looking at him with respect and approval. Among many other things, Ohayon argued that David’s health had deteriorated greatly during his 18 months in a cold, 9 m2 prison cell and that he had already served much more prison time than he should have. Ohayon also argued against the claim that David was a flight risk – telling the Court that if David had not fled from the UK court trial when he was facing a 15-year prison sentence, then he would not do so here. “There’s nothing in the prison, the library is completely closed because of COVID-19 and he just sits in his small, cold prison cell,” Ohayon said. This is inhumane, especially for allegedly doing something that the law punishes with financial penalties and not imprisonment!

Then, the prosecutor got her chance to speak and for the next nine minutes told the Court that David was a flight risk, that he had these health problems before, and that the European Arrest Warrant had been the only way to force David Noakes to go to France. [Right! What sane person would resist a chance to spend 18-months’ vacation in a cold French prison cell?] I am happy to say that the judges seemed relatively disinterested in what the prosecutor had to say, with the Presiding Judge’s eyes even closed part of the time. And who could blame the judge? Functionaries are often boring and pedantic.

David’s attorney then got a chance to speak next, and he tore the prosecutor’s points to shreds. Ohayon pointed out that the Cour de cassation (the French court of highest jurisdiction) had already ruled that detention conditions may be considered in making decisions about the release of prisoners, and that there is no flight risk because David would be wearing an ankle bracelet upon his release if the decision is made for him to stay in France for a while. He also pointed out that as long as David is in prison he is at risk since he remains unvaccinated. Additionally, since the death of David’s mother on November 28, 2021, it was cruel to keep him from the funeral that had been set for December 17th in England.

Most promising, after Maître Philippe Ohayon finished his last arguments for David’s release, and after a short discussion amongst the three judges, the Presiding Judge Sylvie Madec asked for Ohayon to furnish a copy of the Death Certificate for David’s mother. He said that he would, and David’s family soon thereafter obtained that document for the Court.

This was a very good sign. For if the judges were not inclined to release David from prison, then why would they bother to ask for a death certificate?

The judges finished the day by saying that the following day – the third day of the trial – would be spent on closing arguments and that they would then make their decision known by Monday, December 13th. So, we have all been hoping, praying, and working towards a fair and just decision that would see David released sometime soon.

Once again, David asked me to send all of you his complete and very heartfelt thanks for your support, both financial and moral, which support has sustained him all of these many unjust months alone in prison.

Day Three of the Appellate Trial (December 8th) 

This is third day of what has evaporated down to simply the Trial of David Noakes, with the other co-defendants’ trials having been postponed until April 2022. David Noakes was present today in court, flanked by the two armed gendarmes in their black uniforms to make sure David didn’t try any “funny business” (as if he ever would).

The three judges began this session by asking David a number of questions the answers to which would determine whether he would be released next week by court decision or not. He was asked about his passport (“stolen by the MHRA”), why his mother’s funeral was occurring so long after her death (“so that I could possibly attend”), what he planned to do after this case was all over with (“take care of my elderly father, marry Lyn Thyer, and live a quiet life”), his prison conditions (“cold, small cell,” “no contacts or friends there,” “nothing to read in English,” “library closed anyway due to COVID-19,” “exercise yard depressing reminder of being in prison,” and “I didn’t come out of my cell all last month.”) The judges probed and prodded but seemed to be satisfied by his responses.

After about 45 minutes of such questions, the Presiding Judge turned to the Pharmacists’ Union lawyer and asked him to give his concluding statement. This guy is a weasel if I ever saw one and the first words out of his mouth confirmed that, “Mr. Noakes’ sales of GcMAF were in league with the international traffic of drugs. This trafficking has grown 2X in the last ten years.” What kind of human being would try to hitch David’s alleged sales of life-saving GcMAF to the wagon of international drug trafficking?! He talked about “Victims” (of course, never about those victims of his clients) and about Noakes being a “predator.” It was disgusting that they even allowed this money-grubbing lawyer to talk in court. In the end, he asked for his clients to be reimbursed some 20,500 euros that they had lost in sales (because of GcMAF competition) and in court costs. Then, he sat down, and it was the Prosecutor’s turn to paint a false picture of the defendant.

But first David asked if he could address the Court about what had just been said. The Presiding Judge correctly said “not now” because of the procedure that the Court was following, but she assured him that he would get the last word. She then very kindly offered David some paper and pencil to write his thoughts down so that he would not forget them. He accepted, wrote them down, and the trial continued.

The Prosecutor rose up and stood there in all of the righteous fury that she and her short stature could falsely muster, and then proceeded to depict David as the “Boss” of a criminal gang that had transferred its activities from the UK to France, that had made 2-9 million euros (!), and who had conducted business on Guernsey because of no taxes. She accused him of having the goal of earning money, a lot of money, and not wanting to heal people. Obviously, she never paid any attention to the many declarations of GcMAF patients healed because of David’s efforts. And obviously, just like the French Investigating Judge Gadaud in the original European Arrest Warrant, she was many decimal points off in the wrong direction on the monies earned!

The Prosecutor was right about one thing, though, when she accused David Noakes’ of not giving any importance to chemotherapy. None of us who know chemo’s pathetic and miserable track record give chemo any credence.

She also said one curious thing: that David Noakes was selling some drugs that were not drugs, just to make money. Well, if they weren’t drugs, then why was David being charged with selling drugs?

In the end, the Prosecutor asked the court to increase David’s sentence from 4 years to 7 years, to keep all property of his (and others) that had been seized, keep him in prison, and publish the Verdict of the Court in Le Monde (French newspaper) to protect “the people,” tell them that GcMAF is “dangerous,” and that GcMAF does not cure 86 diseases. She then sat down with a smug look on her face. Sadly, I noted that the three judges had all been taking notes during the 18 minutes that she spoke – not a good sign.

There was a short break and then it was David’s lawyer’s turn to speak. He began, and continued, forcefully and powerfully, throughout his time to talk, so it was actually much easier for me to understand and follow his French. Once again, Maître Philippe Ohayon spoke from memory and notes. He said that whatever David Noakes made from this business was nothing compared to billions made by the chemotherapy and cancer industry, that the French users of GcMAF had refused chemotherapy, and that the choice was not between GcMAF and chemotherapy, but between GcMAF and “nothing”! (This was an important point because the prosecution was claiming that David had “stolen” patients away from life-saving chemotherapy to use fraudulent GcMAF instead.)

Maître Philippe Ohayon then made it clear that David had not been in this business to make money but rather it had become a “cause” for him! He believed in GcMAF and wanted to save people’s lives. Whether he was mistaken or not, it didn’t matter because there were many doctors out there who supported David’s position.

Ohayon added that in the future sometime we will look back on chemotherapy in the same way that we now look back on the 16th-century use of leeches (“sangsue” in French). It is just, he continued, that many people do not yet know about GcMAF.

Maître Philippe Ohayon noted that even the British judge in David’s earlier UK trial for distributing GcMAF in the UK was of the opinion that GcMAF had value. The product is not dangerous, Ohayon emphasized to the Court. 

Ohayon quoted Professor Deforce, who had made a meta-analysis of medical publications about GcMAF and who had commented that GcMAF is not dangerous, and it is indisputable that GcMAF can work, although additional research on it would be necessary. “In some countries the libertarian thought is strong, but not in France,” Maître Ohayon observed to the Court.

In the end, Philippe Ohayon reiterated the points made yesterday supporting the release of David Noakes. The Court had listened attentively during Ohayon’s entire 48-minute concluding arguments, but I didn’t see them taking notes. The Presiding Judge then turned to David Noakes and told him that now was his time to speak.

So, several minutes before 5:00 p.m., David Noakes told the Court that, “I am going down and down every day. I cannot even now form my thoughts for conversation. I just want to be free to live a quiet life.” He then sat down. I think that the judges listened to him sympathetically. At least that’s what I tell myself.

The Presiding Judge then repeated what she had said yesterday about a decision on David’s release being made on Monday, December 13, 2021, with David having the right to appear in Court in person or by Zoom link. The Judge and David’s attorney persuaded David that the better choice was to stay in prison and receive the decision by Zoom link. (Keep in mind it takes David at least 4 hours each way to get to and from Court.) Also, frankly, if the decision is to release him, then they can process David out of prison much faster if he is already there, then if he is hours away en route back to prison from court.

The Presiding Judge also announced that the final decision on the appeal itself would be delivered on February 28, 2022. This decision will cover the following issues: the length of the prison sentence, property seizure, and the prosecution’s request for notice publication of the verdict in a French newspaper of general circulation.

Day Four of the Appellate Trial (December 13th)

    This Monday afternoon, the Presiding Judge solemnly announced the decision of the three-judge Court on David Noakes’ release from prison, after being held there for 18 months. David attended by Zoom connection with one of the Ohayon defense associate lawyers and a translator in the courtroom. Daniel Hofnung and I were present in the courtroom to hear the decision, which was announced at 1:46 p.m. local time.    The Presiding Judge – with David Noakes listening and looking on from two large screens set into the courtroom wall – announced that David Noakes was to be set free immediately, to stay at my home in France, with the right to travel immediately to the UK for his mother’s funeral on December 17th, but with the obligation to return to France no later than December 23rd. Once installed in my home, David must report to the local police station once a week, on every Thursday. And, then, on February 28, 2022, he must be in French court again to receive the final Verdict.

This is wonderful news and the appeals court showed a true compassion towards David that was utterly lacking at the trial court level. The Presiding Judge and her two fellow justices deserve an enormous amount of gratitude for having kept an open mind, willing to listen to the facts and the law, during the appellate trial. I am impressed with them.

Now, I will go to the prison and wait outside until David emerges and I can take him away from there. At long last.

But, above all, thank YOU all who supported David and Lynda during these horrible times with your prayers, your work, and your many donations. You all are the true heroes!