According to a source close to the case, confirmed by the Paris prosecutor's office, the latter requested on May 19 the dismissal of Mr. Morandini for "sexual harassment" against a complainant.

He also requested the dismissal of his production company "Do not Zap! Production" for "covert work" in respect of five plaintiffs.

The final decision on a possible trial now rests with the investigating judge.

AFP could not reach his lawyer early Tuesday evening to comment.

In July 2016 in Les Inrockuptibles, two young actors accused Jean-Marc Morandini, now 56 years old, of having taken advantage of the castings made for an erotic web-series called "Les Faucons" to push them to show off naked.

According to their testimony, a person posing as "Catherine" had urged them by email to send videos of themselves naked and masturbation scenes.

In total, five actors had lodged a complaint for "sexual harassment".

Seized of this complaint, the Paris prosecutor's office had closed its investigation in January 2017. But the complainants had obtained in 2018 the resumption of the investigations by an examining magistrate.

In another case, the Paris Court of Appeal validated Tuesday the referral to the criminal court of the television host for "corruption of a minor", according to a judicial source who confirmed information from BFMTV.

According to this source, the investigative chamber of the Court of Appeal rejected the requests for new investigative acts filed by the defense of Mr. Morandini.

She therefore confirmed her referral to correctional ordered by the examining magistrate in July 2020, but reversed the aggravating circumstances of incitement by a means of telecommunication and incitement to the sexual proposition on a minor.

"This is a first step," commented to AFP his lawyer in this case, Me Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt.

"We are going to appeal on points of law on the rest".

The host of CNews and NRJ12 was indicted in 2016 after two young men, minors at the time of the facts they denounce, had taken legal action.

In the first complaint, a young man claimed that Mr. Morandini had made him sexual proposals in SMS exchanges, between February and March 2013.

The second complainant, who has since withdrawn, had for his part told to have been contacted in July 2009 by the production company of Mr. Morandini via a casting site for a project of remake of the film "Ken Park" of the American director Larry Clark.

He explained that he was invited, alone, to the host's home where the latter would have invited him to undress and to reproduce a masturbation scene, according to the newspaper Le Parisien.

© 2021 AFP