2023-07-05 18:56:57
Former LREM MP Laetitia Avia was sentenced Wednesday in Paris to six months suspended imprisonment and two years of ineligibility for the moral harassment of four parliamentary assistants. She must also pay nearly 10,000 euros in damages and 6,500 euros in legal costs.
The former deputy for Paris, 37, who became a lawyer again after her defeat in the legislative elections in 2022, was on the other hand released from the proceedings concerning three other former collaborators. It is “not demonstrated that there was an organizational, managerial, structurally harassing practice on the part of Mrs. Avia”, considered the court. He therefore “examined the situation of each”.
The offense “was committed by Laetitia Avia with regard to several employees for several years when she was an elected representative of the Republic, on the occasion of the exercise of these functions and with regard to parliamentary collaborators, which accentuates the seriousness of his actions, ”wrote the court in its judgment.
“Duty to set an example”
“Even if it was a young deputy, with no experience in human resources management, discovering the functioning of the National Assembly, which moreover was the target of unjustifiable personal attacks, of intolerable denigration and who, after the revelation of the facts, saw her political ambitions reduced to nothing, the court must also take into account the fact that she, like all persons exercising public functions, had a duty to set an example, what she was aware of, ”adds the court.
His lawyer, Me Basile Ader, “obviously” appealed, saying he was “confident” about the outcome of this second trial. “The fact that the court did not retain a system of harassment but that it sorted out the employees who complained will allow us to apprehend the case before the Court of Appeal in a transparent manner with regard to the accusation,” he said.
The counsel for several civil parties, Me Maud Sobel, on the contrary considered that “the clarity and seriousness of the facts, as well as the position of Mrs. Avia at the hearing, foreshadowed the decision to convict”.
Aggression and nicknames on the origins
During the trial, the seven former employees, who did not all file a complaint, testified at length, describing the “verbal violence” and “aggressiveness” of their boss, sometimes via remarks and nicknames about their origins.
The politician had denied in block, saying that the accusations represented “the complete opposite” of her values. She invoked the constraints of political life as her workload in the National Assembly and castigated “lies”.
Mediapart had published in May 2020 the testimonies of five former parliamentary assistants. The MP, an early LREM activist, then brought to Parliament a bill against online hate, largely censored the following month by the Constitutional Council.
After several complaints, an investigation was opened in July 2020 and, two years later, the elected official was summoned to appear in court.
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