Dutch dentist accused of mutilating French patients arrested in Canada
A fugitive Dutch dentist accused of mutilating dozens of French patients has been arrested in Canada. French prosecutors are seeking his extradition to France.
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Mark van Nierop was arrested this week in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, after a year-long international manhunt.
In 2008van Nierop - nicknamed "Mark the Butcher" - settled in Chateau-Chinon, a rural area in central France.
He was welcomed by locals because of a shortage of medical services.
But soon concerns arose, as van Nierop's patients reported bits of broken tools in their gums, recurrent abscesses, septicemia, broken jaws and healthy teeth being pulled out.
"He said he had done 17 treatments on 17 different teeth for my wife in 10 minutes," said Gérard Martin a local, "as well as charging for a tooth that had been pulled out 10 years earlier."
According to French prosecutor Vincent Bonnefoy, 120 victims formed a collective to file charges against van Nierop.
A criminal investigation was opened in May 2013 for fraud and intentional violence causing permanent mutilation but the Dutch dentist fled the country in December.
"We must now confirm to the Canadian authorithies our wish that he is extradited to France," said Bonnefoy as van Nierop faced a detention review hearing in Canada on Friday.
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