Paris (AFP)

The defense of Georges Tron fired on Tuesday against the two women who accuse him of rape and sexual assault, at the appeal trial at the Paris Assizes of the former Secretary of State, against whom were required five years in prison, three of which were suspended.

According to two former employees of the town of Draveil (Essonne), the mayor LR imposed touching and digital penetrations on them between 2007 and 2010, generally during threesome scenes with his then-Culture assistant, Brigitte Gruel.

A "factory lies", supported the lawyers of Georges Tron and Brigitte Gruel Tuesday afternoon in their pleadings, in front of the chairs left empty for the occasion by the plaintiffs.

The two defendants claim their innocence and were acquitted at first instance.

Georges Tron denies any sexual relationship with his contradictions, or even with his ex-assistant who appears at his side.

The public prosecutor and the civil parties argue that the local elected official of 63 years has exploited the "hold" he would have had on Virginie Ettel and Eva Loubrieu.

According to them, this moral ascendancy constitutes a form of coercion - one of the characteristics of rape and sexual assault in the penal code.

But the defense responded by pointing to the contradictions and gray areas of the accusers' accounts.

Me Solange Doumic, who defends Georges Tron alongside Antoine Vey, reminds the court of affectionate text messages sent by Eva Loubrieu to the mayor.

“In May 2007, she began to be raped, she no longer wanted a relationship, but above all she said to her rapist + think of me +?” She is surprised.

From Virginie Ettel, the lawyer assures us that she "tells anything", before questioning: "And all the same you should believe her because she is suffering?"

- Politics, morals and law -

The existence or not of a situation of constraint between the politician in the proud port and the two women is one of the keys to this file - which forced Georges Tron to resign from the Fillon government in 2011 - and constituted the one of the central questions of the three weeks of hearings of the new trial on appeal.

In 2018, although deeming the existence of sexual scenes credible, the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis considered that there was no constraint, arguing in particular of contradictions and lies on the part of the complainants.

At the start of the day, the public prosecutor requested five years in prison, including three suspended sentences, against Georges Tron.

However, he asked that the firm sentence be instead carried out under an electronic bracelet.

The general prosecutor's office also requested a two-year suspended sentence against Brigitte Gruel.

In his two-and-a-half-hour indictment, Jean-Christophe Muller tried to "unravel this tight interweaving which, in this case, makes politics, morals and law mix at the same time".

He called on the court to condemn Georges Tron for rapes but not committed in a meeting, considering that Brigitte Gruel was guilty only of sexual assault in a meeting, and not of rape, on Virgine Ettel and Eva Loubrieu.

"It is not a fashion effect to speak of influence, it is a reality, a form of constraint," said the Advocate General.

Walled in his denials, Georges Tron staunchly maintains that these complaints are part of a "plot" fomented by his political opponents in Essonne and intended to bring it down.

A thesis which "fell apart" at the hearing, in the opinion of the Advocate General: the "conspiracy", "we no longer know if it is the National Front, the Modem, friends of the same camp who are no longer friends, the socialist town hall opposite ... It is quite multifaceted, shall we say, "joked the magistrate.

Probable ten-year epilogue of this twisted judicial soap opera, the verdict of this appeal trial is expected on Wednesday.

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