The response of activist Taha Bouhafs. In a press release sent to AFP on Thursday, his lawyers denounce a procedure “outside the law”, carried out by the Committee for the Monitoring of Sexual and Sexist Violence (CVSS) of La France insoumise, which, according to them, prevents him from responding to the charges against him. “Taha Bouhafs intends, through his advice, to reaffirm his right to know the accusations against him in order to be able to respond to them, in the same way as any publicly accused citizen”, write his three lawyers Mes William Bourdon, Raphaël Kempf and Vincent Brengarth.
Candidate for the legislative elections in the 14th district of the Rhône, the militant journalist withdrew on May 10, citing the “racism” of “unprecedented attacks” against him carried out by macronie, the right and part of the left. . The next day, however, LFI announced the opening of an internal investigation against him by the CVSS after several accusations of sexual assault. On Tuesday, the activist came out of silence to criticize LFI for not having allowed him to defend himself against the accusations and to demand “a fair and equitable procedure” in a six-page open letter published on social networks.
“This situation is not tolerable”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party defended itself by explaining that it could not send him “the information sent to the cell”, nor organize a confrontation, in the name of “the complainants’ desire for anonymity”. But “in respect of the contradictory, it can be heard by our authorities”, adds the movement, which continues “(its) work of conviction with the complainants so that they take legal action”. “This situation is not tolerable because it seriously disregards the rights of Taha Bouhafs”, consider his lawyers.
“Everyone must measure the risk of a political justice which would be based on indices of which only the addressees would know the content, which would be exercised without a perfectly defined procedure, in defiance of the adversarial principle and without access to factual elements, ”they add. “The procedure followed against Taha Bouhafs is outside the lawwhich prevented him from being able to respond to the accusations against him”, believe the journalist’s lawyers, who question “more generally the need to review the internal procedures of certain political formations or associative structures, to avoid, at least name of the legitimate fight against sexual violence, that trials be conducted unilaterally in an interpersonal environment that cannot guarantee neutrality and impartiality”.