Nanterre (AFP)
Manuel Valls sued Dieudonné M'bala M'bala for defamation after a video posted on YouTube last October in which the controversial comedian accuses the former prime minister of sexual assault, sources told AFP on Friday concordant.
The Nanterre public prosecutor's office has issued an introductory indictment for public defamation of an individual by word, writing, image or means of communication to the public by electronic means, he indicated, requested by AFP.
If the filing of a complaint with the constitution of civil party meets the legal criteria, a judge will therefore be referred.
In the offending video, Dieudonné M'bala M'bala "accuses Valls of sexually assaulting a student when he was a history teacher" and claims that he was taken into custody for these facts, explained the council from Prime Minister Me Thibault de Montbrial to AFP.
However, "no luck: already, Valls has never been a history teacher. Everything is false," denounced the lawyer.
During a hearing on March 15 before the Versailles Criminal Court, Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, tried in another defamatory video case, had launched: "It is not me on the video".
The comedian had argued to have been the victim of digital rigging, "the deepfake", during this trial in which he appeared for contempt against a magistrate.
The deepfake is a sophisticated technique consisting, among other things, of superimposing one face on another.
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