Nanterre (AFP)
A preliminary investigation has been opened against the football columnist Pierre Ménès, accused by a former collaborator of moral harassment, we learned Thursday from a judicial source.
The investigation also relates to "facts qualified at this stage of sexist insults not public", specified the parquet floor of Nanterre.
The complainant, Emmanuel Trumer, worked from September 2017 to June 2018 with Pierre Ménès as an employee.
He filed a complaint in October for "moral harassment" and announced it on Tuesday on his Twitter account. He also broadcast several SMS exchanges with the star journalist of Canal + in which he is notably called "fag".
The sentences were "taken out of context" according to Mr. Ménès' lawyer, Arash Derambarsh. "They are + private jokes + between them, it was Mr. Trumer who first used the term" fagot "," assures the lawyer for whom "Pierre Ménès is clean".
The complainant's lawyer, Didier Seban, told him that his client "had been in great difficulty with Mr. Ménès for a year".
"He is in a bad psychological state" and decided to file a complaint a year after the facts because of "the firepower of Mr. Ménès in football" which made him fear of not finding work, according to Me Seban .
For his part, Arash Derambarsh announced that he intended to prosecute Emmanuel Trumer "for harassment and / or defamation".
"There is only one victim, it is Pierre Ménès. Mr. Trumer instrumentalizes the media for his personal interest and to be lathered", denounces Me Derambarsh.
Known for his outspokenness, Pierre Ménès is the featured columnist for Canal football club on Canal +.
© 2019 AFP