After receiving a complaint on Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into attempted rape of Damien Abad, Minister of Solidarity, AFP reported Wednesday, June 29.
According to a source familiar, the complainant claims that the minister tried to rape and raped her at a Paris party in 2010.
Mediapart published the testimony of this woman in mid-June under a pseudonym “Laetitia”.
According to the investigative website, she is an “elected centralist” who was at the time of her denunciation, president of a Federation of the New Center youth movement. Damien Abad was then MEP and was also the national president.
Me Benoit Chabert, his lawyer, said that he doesn’t know who the victim is. He said that the facts in the news article were false and that he strongly disagrees with them. His client was “totally innocence.” Me Chabert, Solicited by AFP on Wednesday, did not want to speak.
According to the entourage of the minister, quoted by a journalist at TF1, Damien Abad would not have ruled out resignation on Wednesday evening.
Monday’s charges were again challenged by the minister, who announced that he would be filing a complaint regarding slanderous denunciation. “I can promise you that, if there are any new elements, justice will be seized again and we will draw all the penalties.
“It’s an effort to intimidate others victims,” reacted to AFP Me Raphaele Bialkiewicz. The lawyer for the complainant assured that the latter was “serene.”
The brigade for repression against delinquency against persons (BRDP) was entrusted with the investigation of attempted rape.
When sexual violence allegations erupted at her first council, prime minister Elisabeth Borne stated: “If there is new elements, if justice has been again seized, then we will shoot all of the consequences of this decision.” A few days before a reshuffle, there are new elements that weaken the Borne government.
