Paris (AFP)

The former minister of François Mitterrand Pierre Joxe attack Monday in Paris the writer Ariane Fornia who accuses him of sexual assault committed in 2010, a libel trial whose atmosphere looks deleterious, a few days after the opening of an investigation into the charges of a second woman.

Pierre Joxe, 84, and Ariane Fornia, daughter of the former Sarkozy minister Eric Besson, will both be present Monday morning in front of the 17th civil chamber of the Paris court, according to their lawyers. The hearing must begin at 9:45.

In October 2017, at the height of the #MeToo wave, the young woman accused the former president of the Court of Auditors of having assaulted her during a performance at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in March 2010, in repeatedly putting his hand on the thigh and the back "to (his) crotch". Prescribed facts.

In a blog post, she described "an old gentleman with a very respectable air", "former minister of Mitterrand", before accusing Pierre Joxe in L'Express.

Mr. Joxe had denounced "a fabric of untruths" and asked for "written and public apologies", which the writer had refused to do. "Not only will he not apologize, but I absolutely stand by everything I said," she retorted to that figure on the left.

Pierre Joxe had sued Ariane Fornia for defamation.

The trial is all the more tense as five days before the hearing on Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor announced the opening of an investigation to examine the complaint of sexual assault filed Tuesday by another woman.

This former employee of Pierre Joxe accuses the former minister of sexual assault and harassment in 2018.

"As if by chance, this story, even more incredible than the other, arrives a few days before the court hearing in Paris, because the file in front is empty," reacted Pierre Joxe to AFP. "The handling that is going on will be easy to disassemble," he assured.

Asked about these charges of "manipulation", Ariane Fornia's lawyer, Jean-Marc Fedida, replied that he "can not believe that a former president of the Court of Auditors can for a moment think that it is possible to influence the decision of a court by the announcement of a complaint a week before the hearing ".

On Monday, Pierre Joxe, defended by Jean-Yves Dupeux, will demand the condemnation of Ariane Fornia to a symbolic euro of damages, 5,000 euros for legal fees, the deletion of the disputed remarks on his blog and the publication of press releases. court.

© 2019 AFP