Paris (AFP)
A prevention association against pedophilia, the Blue Angel, sues the writer Gabriel Matzneff for provocation to commit sexual attacks and rapes on minors as well as for apology for crime, AFP learned on Wednesday.
The association has chosen to quote the writer herself to appear before the 17th correctional chamber of the Paris court, specializing in press and freedom of expression cases.
A first procedural hearing is to take place on February 12, according to a judicial source and the association's lawyer.
A possible trial would only take place in the long term, but the question of limitation - three months for these offenses covered by the law on freedom of the press of 1881 - could arise.
A direct citation allows a victim, in particular, to summon the alleged perpetrator directly to court, without a preliminary investigation being carried out by investigators. It is up to the victim to collect the evidence of guilt from the alleged perpetrator.
"This is the first time that Matzneff will meet the penal code and that he will have to answer for his actions," Mehana Mouhou told AFP. "For too long, impunity has raged and the justice system must judge it without complacency."
A preliminary investigation, for "rapes committed on minor" of less than 15 years was moreover opened by the parquet floor of Paris on January 3, the day after the publication of the book "The consent" of the editor Vanessa Springora, in which it implicates the 83-year-old writer for his relations with minors.
In its summons, which AFP was able to consult, the association believes that "Gabriel Matzneff has always sought to normalize pedophilia, recounting his adventures with minors in his works and other publications".
"In his right of reply to Vanessa Springora, he does not express any reservation or regret regarding the relationship he had with a minor who at the time was under 15 years of age," she adds, estimating moreover that "the status of famous writer of Gabriel Matzneff reinforces the weight of his remarks which then benefit from a large-scale distribution".
In her autobiographical novel, Vanessa Spingora, now 47 years old, recounts how she was seduced by Gabriel Matzneff at the age of 13, the relationship that she had afterwards with him and the wounds it caused. resulted in his life. It also describes a man with predatory behavior, sex tourism in Asia.
© 2020 AFP