The rape accusations against Gérald Darmanin are resurfacing.

Targeted by a judicial investigation, the Minister of the Interior was heard Monday, December 14 by the judges, who placed him under the status of assisted witness, his lawyers told AFP.

"Gérald Darmanin, at his request, was heard this morning by two investigating judges within the framework of" the judicial information on this accusation of rape for facts dating from 2009, announced Mes Mathias Chichportich and Pierre-Olivier Sur , confirming information from Point.

According to his advice, "the investigating judges confirmed his status as an assisted witness (...). He continues to be at the disposal of justice."

The examining magistrates can summon the Minister of the Interior initially as an assisted witness and then change his status in the procedure to that of indictment if it brings together "serious or consistent evidence".

The information had not been confirmed from a judicial source to AFP early Monday evening.

Initially scheduled for December 1, this hearing was postponed at the request of the minister's lawyers.

Procedure restarted after a classification without follow-up

Gérald Darmanin is accused by Ms. Patterson-Spatz of rape, sexual harassment and breach of trust.

In 2009, the complainant addressed the elected official, then in charge of the legal affairs department of the UMP (ancestor of the Les Républicains party), to try to revise a 2004 conviction for blackmail and malicious appeals to respect for an ex-companion.

According to her, Gérald Darmanin would have dangled his support to the Chancellery through a letter, in exchange for sexual favors that she would have accepted in March 2009, feeling forced to "go to the pan", according to his expression in front of the investigators.

The Paris Court of Appeal had ordered in mid-June the resumption of the investigations into this accusation of rape, almost two years after the refusal of an examining magistrate to resume the investigation.

The investigating chamber of the court of appeal did not indeed follow the requisitions of the public prosecutor's office and considered that the investigating magistrate "could not rely solely on the results of the preliminary investigation" to render a no- place before any new investigation.

Complaint by Darmanin for slanderous denunciation

Heard in open hearing during the preliminary investigation in February 2018, Gérald Darmanin confirmed having had a sexual relationship with Ms. Patterson-Spatz, but according to him freely consented and at the initiative of the complainant: "There was no counterpart. "

"You still have to measure what it's like to be wrongly accused, of having to explain to your parents what happened because, it's true, I had a young man's life ", explained Gérald Darmanin in July to La Voix du Nord.

Gérald Darmanin, whose appointment as Minister of the Interior had been criticized by feminists, mainly because of this case, filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation.

With AFP

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