2023-05-15 16:00:47
The affair broke out in 2017, in the midst of a surge of testimonies under the #metoo. Gilbert Cuzou, former regional councilor for Ile-de-France and member of Benoît Hamon’s campaign team during the 2017 presidential election, was sentenced to three years in prison, including one year in prison, for sexual harassment at the against several activists of the Socialist Party (PS), Monday, May 15 by the tenth chamber of the Paris court.
Now 39, the former elected official was also found guilty of remarks and behavior with a sexual connotation against the five complainants and of sexual assault against one of them. The firm part of the sentence can be accomplished under an electronic bracelet, specified the president of the room.
No penalty of ineligibility but registration in Fijais
The court did not follow the prosecution, which demanded a permanent ban from all public office for the former regional councilor, as well as his ineligibility for a period of three years. However, it decided to register Mr. Cuzou in the File of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (Fijais).
Gilbert Cuzou, present at the hearing, will also have to pay sums ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 euros to the five young women who had joined as civil parties.
The complainants, aged 18 to 28 at the time of the events which took place between October 2014 and June 2017, had all participated, directly or indirectly, in the presidential campaign of former socialist candidate Benoît Hamon. It was in this context that they had denounced having suffered repeated sexual touching from Gilbert Cuzou and, for some, recurrent sexual remarks or solicitations against them.
One of the complainants, 18 years old at the time of the events, had notably denounced a rape suffered in June 2017 at the home of Mr. Cuzou, and which occurred after returning from an evening between activists. These facts had been reclassified as sexual assault during the investigation.
In 2017, in the wake of the announcement of the filing of complaints, Mr. Cuzou had been suspended from the movement launched by Benoît Hamon, who a few months later became Génération. s, and excluded from his political group in the Ile-de-France regional council.
During the trial in March, the former elected official portrayed himself as a “seducer” but denied having committed any sexual assault.
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