Under the lights of the operating room, two masked surgeons focus on a procedure. This illustrative photo places the Sydney Ohana case in its medical setting. Credit: JAFAR AHMED / Unsplash.
Dr. Sydney Ohana is implicated in five new sexual violence cases. The information comes from a franceinfo investigation published on September 22, 2026. Ten women now accuse the Paris cosmetic surgeon of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment. One of them was a minor at the time of the alleged facts. The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed these new formal investigations on September 23. It also says it has referred a “potential breach” of his judicial supervision to the investigating judge. He disputes all the allegations and remains presumed innocent. He practices under court-ordered restrictions, and France’s medical council is due to examine his case in early October.
Updated on September 24, 2026
Decisions Made In March, Revealed In September
The case became public in spring 2025. On March 28, 2025, after being held in police custody, Sydney Ohana was placed under formal investigation (mise en examen) and under judicial supervision. The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed this to AFP on April 4, 2025. Three women accused him at the time: two patients and a healthcare professional. According to the prosecutor’s office, as quoted by AFP and Libération, he was placed under formal investigation for rape and sexual harassment. He was given assisted witness status (témoin assisté) for one sexual assault. The inquiry was assigned to the 3rd district of the Paris judicial police.
The developments revealed on September 22 date back to March 2026. According to franceinfo, the investigating judge questioned him in March 2026. Sydney Ohana was then placed under formal investigation or given assisted witness status in five additional cases. The alleged facts, from 2007 to 2023, involve rape, an attempted rape, sexual assaults, including one on a minor, and sexual harassment. They concern the Eiffel Clinic, which he founded, but also his private life. The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP on September 23 a “supplementary formal investigation” opened in March 2026. It covers “sexual assault by a person abusing their authority.” It also cites sexual harassment “by a person in a position of authority” between 2017 and October 2022. It further lists a rape, an attempted rape and a sexual assault in 2019, plus “sexual assault on a minor under 15” in 2023.
In total, franceinfo counts ten women who accuse him. Sydney Ohana is under formal investigation for facts concerning five of them and an assisted witness for at least three others. Three of the new cases led to a formal investigation and two to assisted witness status. That breakdown, published by franceinfo, was confirmed to Le Figaro by the prosecutor’s office. Ten women reporting facts therefore means neither ten complaints nor ten formal investigations.
Patients, An Employee, Relatives: What The Ten Women Allege
Four patients are among the accusers, according to franceinfo. The first, operated on in 2017, alleges three rapes around her surgery, at the surgeon’s home, in a hotel and then at the clinic. He was placed under formal investigation for these facts in March 2025. A second, operated on in 2021, filed a complaint as early as autumn 2022. She alleges rapes by the surgeon and one of his friends, the day after her operation. Her case was joined to the file in early 2026. A third, who had leg surgery in 2023, alleges he touched her breasts in her room. She withdrew her complaint in May 2025, citing media pressure. A fourth describes a hand placed on her thigh during a consultation in 2007.
A former clinic employee alleges repeated advances, a forced kiss and a rape she places on the last day of her contract. Two professionals who came to sell medical equipment describe sexual remarks in his office, and one of them an act of indecent exposure. Several witnesses present say, however, that he did not address those words directly to her. In his private life, a young woman he met in 2017, then aged 18, lived with him for several years. She filed a complaint in April 2025 before withdrawing it in August. Her sister alleges a rape, an attempted rape and a sexual assault in 2019, without having filed a complaint. A young woman from their circle was a minor at the time of the alleged facts, in July 2023. She filed a complaint in June 2025 for sexual assault.
In March 2026, the investigating judge questioned the surgeon about a “similar pattern of behavior” reported by several women. She describes, according to franceinfo, a man who is “ambivalent, at times pleasant and helpful, at times violent, brutal and humiliating.” He would be “taking advantage of their psychological vulnerability or their very young age,” in her words. Sydney Ohana rejects any modus operandi. “Each case is different, I was not looking for easy prey,” he replied, insisting that “sexually, everything is always consensual.”
Formal Investigation And Assisted Witness: Two Distinct Statuses
Being placed under formal investigation is a decision made by the investigating judge, Service-Public explains. It requires serious or corroborating evidence making the person’s involvement in the alleged facts plausible. It is not a ruling on guilt. The person under investigation may be assisted by a lawyer, access the file, request investigative steps and challenge the decision. They may also be placed under judicial supervision.
An assisted witness is implicated without being placed under formal investigation for the facts concerned. They have the right to a lawyer, access to the file and the right to remain silent. They cannot be placed under judicial supervision for those facts. This status is neither a conviction nor a closure of the case: it can turn into a formal investigation if new evidence emerges. The same person may therefore hold different statuses depending on the facts examined, as here.
In the Ohana file, the three new formal investigations of March 2026 first concern the facts alleged by the sister of his former partner. They are rape, attempted rape and sexual assault. They also concern the young woman who was a minor at the time, for “sexual assault on a minor under 15” in the prosecutor’s wording. The third concerns the former employee, for harassment and sexual assault. In the latter case, he is an assisted witness for a rape involving the administration of a substance. He is also an assisted witness for the rapes and the sexual offence alleged by his former partner. The same applies to the sexual assault described by the 2007 patient, despite the probable expiry of the statute of limitations. For the patient operated on in 2021, his lawyers report assisted witness status, which the prosecutor’s office would neither confirm nor deny to franceinfo.
Three accusers withdrew their complaints and two never filed one. That does not close a case. Withdrawing a complaint “does not automatically end the investigation or the proceedings,” Service-Public points out. Only the public prosecutor decides on prosecution. Once a judicial investigation is opened, the investigating judge investigates the facts, not just the complaints.
Restrictions On Contact With Patients
According to the prosecutor’s office, as quoted by AFP, the judicial supervision banned him as early as March 2025 from practicing as a cosmetic surgeon. It also barred any contact with the complainants, required him to surrender his passport and banned him from leaving the country. Libération specified, after a correction from the prosecutor’s office, that the practice ban concerned “his female patients.” Le Parisien nevertheless observed on April 4, 2025 that the surgeon was working at the clinic that very afternoon. He had handed over his passport at the courthouse that morning.
In September 2026, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to franceinfo that this judicial supervision remains in place. It includes “a ban on leaving French territory” and “a ban on practicing medicine for acts requiring the physical presence of female patients.” It also bars “any activity at the clinic involving contact in the presence of female laboratory representatives.” To Libération, the prosecutor’s office added a ban on “contacting the victims,” while “the administrative management and organization of the clinic remain authorized.”
In the meantime, ELLE published in July 2026 an investigation based on testimonies from patients and healthcare professionals. It opens with an undercover consultation. Two journalists, posing as patients, say they were seen by Sydney Ohana at the clinic on May 20, 2026. For about fifteen minutes, he presented facelift techniques to them. The magazine writes that by receiving them, the surgeon “has just breached” his obligations. Informed by a press article of a “potential breach of the judicial supervision,” the Paris prosecutor’s office “has referred the matter to the investigating judge.” It told AFP so on September 23. It is now up to the judge to decide whether the obligations were breached. No decision has been made public to date.
The Doctor-Patient Relationship Imposes Precise Limits
Two of the women cited by franceinfo had turned to the medical council before going to court. The patient seen in 2007 wrote to it a few days after her consultation. The one operated on in 2023 referred the matter to it that same year, before filing a complaint in 2024. Those reports raise the question of what action was taken; franceinfo does not specify what the institution did with them.
In its commentary on Article 2 of the Code of Medical Ethics, the council reminds doctors that they “must not abuse their position.” It cites the “asymmetrical nature of the medical relationship” and the “potential vulnerability of the patient.” Doctors must “refrain from any ambiguous behavior, particularly of a sexual nature.” They must also explain each step of the examination to obtain consent, ensure privacy when undressing and reserve the practice for medical activity alone. These rules apply to every doctor. Recalling them does not prejudge what the courts will establish in the Ohana case, where the allegations remain contested.
The issue goes beyond this case. The council conducted a self-reported survey in November 2024, cited by Le Monde. More than one in two female doctors said they had experienced sexist and sexual violence. Among them, 49% named another doctor registered with the council. The institution says it has taken measures since 2019 and is calling for legislative changes to better protect victims.
An Ethics Review Announced For Early October
The National Council of the Ordre des médecins, France’s medical council, spoke to franceinfo. Sydney Ohana’s case will be examined at its “next plenary assembly in early October.” The institution says it is acting “with the aim of referring this doctor to the disciplinary chamber.” That deadline does not amount to a sanction. The disciplinary chamber, the council’s own court, rules independently of the criminal trial. Its sanctions range from a warning to being struck off, such as the two-year suspension upheld on appeal against Didier Raoult in 2024.
Faced with these accusations, the defense disputes everything. Before the judge, Sydney Ohana denies any violence and refers to consensual relationships. For the 2023 incident at the clinic, he speaks of an “administrative error” by a nurse who mixed up two rooms. He describes himself as “a real target” for “people who have problems” and states: “I am innocent and I will always say so.” He also worries about his clinic and its 70 employees.
His lawyers, Caroline Toby and Laurent Benouaich, told franceinfo that he “contests with the utmost firmness the accusations made against him.” He “intends to continue his active cooperation with the justice system, so that the truth can be established and, for some accusers, restored.” They have filed a complaint against the sister of his former partner for “false accusation, blackmail and attempted extortion.” The surgeon, they add, “reserves the right to take all measures, including legal action, to defend his honor, his private life and his fundamental rights.” Contacted by AFP on September 23, Caroline Toby did not respond.
Sydney Ohana remains presumed innocent. The criminal investigation and any disciplinary proceedings will each have to establish what falls within their own remit.