ATHENS – A Greek man who claimed he was a doctor specializing in cancer treatment, facing 12 counts of murder and 14 of attempted murder of his patients, gave one of them beetroot and garlic juice, a court heard.

The son of one of the patients who perished while treated by the defendant, identified as Dr. Kontos – some media revealed him as Nikos Kontothanasis – said his father was given the juices and various liquids and was persuaded to stop chemotherapy –

The man, whose father died in 2015, was the first of 60 witnesses expected to give evidence in the trial on Nov. 26, said the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANMA) and testified that when he asked about the treatment was told that “doctors administer chemotherapy for bribes from the pharmaceutical industry.”

He didn’t say why or his father believed that or allowed the unorthodox treatment that cost them 7,200 euros ($8,127) after being told that the patient would “get back on his feet,” but died after the juice intake caused vomiting, bloating and liquid to gather in the lungs.

The trial went on without the defendant who was being treated in a hospital, the report said, without indicating the cause.