Paris (AFP)

Gallimard's headquarters in Paris were searched Wednesday as part of an investigation against writer Gabriel Matzneff for "rape of a minor" under the age of 15, and he will be tried in another proceeding in September 2021 for apology for these acts.

The search, revealed by Mediapart, began on Wednesday morning and ended in the early afternoon.

Investigators from the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence against Persons (OCRVP) are looking for written passages from the writer not appearing in his published works, a source close to the file told AFP.

In an interview with the ex-Biffures site, in 2008, Mr. Matzneff declared that he had "self-censored" "passages" from his writings that were in danger of being "considered especially scandalous" and that they had "kept them safe in a safe. bank".

According to Mediapart, this safe was "located" by the investigators.

This is the first search at the headquarters of the editor of Gabriel Matzneff since the opening of the investigation on January 3, the day after the publication of the autobiographical novel "Le consent" by Vanessa Springora. She denounces her relationship under the influence of the writer when she was a minor.

The investigators had already visited Gallimard's premises in January to seek the works of Gabriel Matzneff.

According to a source close to the file, confirming information from Mediapart, the investigators are also interested in Christian Giudicelli, his editor within Gallimard and traveling companion in the Philippines.

As part of this investigation, a call for witnesses was issued on Tuesday by the OCRVP. The Paris prosecutor Rémi Heitz explained that it was a question of avoiding that there are "forgotten victims".

The editor Vanessa Springora was interviewed by the police on January 29, while seeing only a "symbolic significance" to that because of the prescription of the facts.

To date, she is the only woman to have publicly testified among the adolescent girls seduced by Gabriel Matzneff, whose behavior, described in his own books, has long been tolerated in the Parisian literary world. In 2013, he won the Renaudot essay prize.

The one who said in a letter not to deserve the "awful portrait" published by Mrs. Springora affirmed at the end of January on BFMTV "to regret" his past pedophile practices in Asia, while arguing that "at the time", " no one ever spoke of a crime. "

It is for some of his reactions to Mrs. Springora's book, which appeared between the end of December and the beginning of January in l'Obs, Le Parisien and Express, that Mr. Matzneff will be tried on September 28, 2021 in another procedure for "apology "of pedophile acts before the 17th chamber of the Paris criminal court, specializing in press and freedom of expression cases.

The writer was summoned to appear by a prevention association against pedophilia, the Blue Angel.

© 2020 AFP