An investigation into attempted rape was opened on Tuesday, June 29, after a woman filed a complaint against the Minister of Solidarity, Damien Abad, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday, requested by the France-Presse agency. The investigations were entrusted to the brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP).
The complainant accuses the minister of having tried to rape her during a party organized in Paris in 2010, according to a source familiar with the matter. Mid-June, Mediapart had published the testimony of “Laëtitia” (assumed name), a “elected centrist”who accused the minister of having tried to rape her during a party organized at his home in Paris in the first half of 2010. “Today, I can no longer be silent”she told the investigative media.
Son avocate, Me Raphaële Bialkiewicz, had informed Mediapart that she was proceeding “to the collection and cross-checking of elements, with a view to providing all the useful follow-ups”.
Responding to the facts reported by MediapartMr. Abad’s lawyer said on BFM-TV on Tuesday that his client « [voyait] not who it is[ssait] ». “The facts that are mentioned in a press article are false and he disputes them firmly”assured M.e Benoît Chabert, claiming that his client was “completely innocent”. On Monday, the minister again challenged the charges and announced that he was filing a complaint for slanderous denunciation.
” I was scared “
During the facts recounted by Laëtita, she was president, in her department, of the youth movement of the New Center, of which Mr. Abad, MEP, was the national president. On the evening of the events, she says, Damien Abad told her “offered a drink”, at the bottom of which she saw ” something ” : suspicious, she went to spit her mouthful in the toilet.
Also according to his story, Mr. Abad was waiting for him behind the door and everything went ” very quickly “ : the MEP would have “pushed into a room opposite” then tried to force her to perform fellatio. “I was scared, I was flabbergasted. I struggled, I punched him in the stomach”she said.
Laëtitia said she was finally able ” come undone “ of his alleged assailant and leave the room thanks to the irruption of a guest. The facts reported by this woman are “supported by the testimonies of eight people, to whom she confided or who may have witnessed certain elements of her story”and Mediapart claims to have contacted. Brigitte Fouré, now mayor (UDI) of Amiens, and at the time departmental manager of the New Center, remembers the “indecent behavior” of Damien Abad towards the young woman.
Damien Abad had denounced the “carefully chosen schedule of these publications”, before the second round of legislative elections, and the “partiality” of the investigation of Mediapart, who, according to him, has a motivation ” Politics “. “As for the allegations reported, they revolt me and I categorically refute them”added the minister.