« JI don’t want the case to be covered up, forgotten, I simply ask you for a fair and equitable procedure. Walled in silence since the accusation of sexual assault which led him to withdraw his candidacy for the legislative elections in early May, the militant of La France insoumise Taha Bouhafs publishes, this Tuesday, July 5, a long open letter on Twitter in which he again proclaims his innocence… And charges the movement of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whom he accuses of not having given him the opportunity to defend himself.
The 25-year-old journalist looks back on the day of May 9, when Clémentine Autain received him in a café to tell him that the nomination of LFI was going to be withdrawn from him. “She tells me that the follow-up committee against GBV [violences sexistes et sexuelles, NDLR] of La France Insoumise – of which she informs me that she is not a member – received a letter containing an accusation of sexual violence made against me. In shock, I ask him for details. She refuses to give them to me. I ask to be confronted with the accuser or at least with the accusations. She refuses again, opposing the accuser’s wish to remain anonymous, implying only that it would be an old relationship. »
After a difficult and long silence, it’s time for me to speak again, to give you the explanations that I owe you.
And ask for the answers that I am owed.
Open letter to the @FranceInsoumise
1/2 pic.twitter.com/PXrXkvC2I1
— Taha Bouhafs �� (@T_Bouhafs) July 5, 2022
Internal investigation
The MP, whom the alleged victim copied to her report, would then have asked the candidate to announce the withdrawal of his candidacy by questioning “the racist attacks” which he said he had been the subject of for several days, which ‘he refused. “Why should we lie about the real reason for my withdrawal? he wonders, assuring that Clémentine Autain would then have replied: “If you refuse, it is we who will be forced to communicate publicly against you, it is not in your interest. “Physically and morally very weakened”, he finally agrees to retire.
When the press revealed, on May 11, that an internal investigation had been opened within LFI, the movement’s follow-up committee against gender-based and sexual violence confirmed and published a press release in which it explained that it had received testimony targeting Taha Bouhafs four days earlier. “In this context, Taha Bouhafs was confronted with the charges against him on Monday, May 9, reads the press release. He was told that because of the seriousness of the supposed facts, as a precautionary principle and in accordance with the texts defining the principles of the movement, La France insoumise could be led not to invest it. After this confrontation and even before the end of our internal procedure, Taha Bouhafs made the choice to renounce his nomination for the legislative elections. »
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“It is false, denounces today the ex-candidate. I don’t know what I’m being accused of, I’ve never been confronted with these accusations, no more on May 9 than on another date. “His letters to LFI remained, he assures, unanswered. On May 11, Clémentine Autain, however, assured Mediapart of having had this confrontation with the young man. “We went to see Taha Bouhafs to tell him that, in view of the description […], we did not see how he was going to be able to be a candidate on behalf of La France insoumise. “While acknowledging that the principal concerned had not been made aware of the facts of which he is accused, “because there is a principle of anonymity” of the report, in the absence of a complaint. Requested by Point to provide her version of the facts, Clémentine Autain referred to the press release published at the end of the day by LFI.
LFI defends itself
In this text, LFI indicates that “two reports likely to be characterized as serious accusations of sexual assault were sent to us when Taha Bouhafs was preparing to be invested” and maintains that the activist “was received for him mean that in view of the detailed testimonies, as a precautionary measure, his candidacy could not be validated within the framework of our authorities”. The party denies having wanted to hide the truth and specifies that it did not initially comment on the real reasons for the withdrawal of the candidacy to “protect the confidentiality desired by women, but also not to publicly throw a accusation against a man without him being able to defend himself in adversarial proceedings”, before having to explain himself following the revelations in the press.
If the rebels say they understand the need for Taha Bouhafs to defend himself, they recognize that no information on the charges against him could be transmitted to him to protect the anonymity of the complainants. “We cannot organize a confrontation for these same reasons. We are not a court, we are a political organization whose decisions on gender-based and sexual violence are the precaution and protection of the members of our movement and not a court decision to which we can never replace us”, adds the movement, specifying to continue its “work of conviction” with the alleged victims so that they take legal action. “In respect of the contradictory, Taha Bouhafs may be heard by our authorities. »
In his letter, the activist regrets that “the confusion and opacity of the sequence” allowed his detractors to “spread [son] about the most absurd and filthy rumours”. He quotes in particular the testimony of a former colleague of the Media, published in Point – “When Taha said that he did not want to isolate himself in the editing room with a colleague because the latter was gay, we acted as if we had heard nothing” –, assuring that it is “absolutely fake “. “I am not driven by any hatred or spirit of revenge”, pleads the activist, believing however that “the hour of clarification and truth” has come.