Seized by the labor inspectorate, the Nanterre prosecutor's office on Tuesday opened a preliminary investigation for acts of sexual assault and sexual harassment against Mr. Ménès, 58, he said Thursday, contacted by AFP .

The investigations are entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against people (BRDP), added the public prosecutor.

In her documentary "I am not a slut, I am a journalist", dealing with sexism in the world of sports journalism and broadcast in spring 2021 on Canal +, the journalist Marie Portolano accuses her former colleague in particular of several sexual assaults.

An internal investigation was opened in the wake of the Canal + channel, accused of having removed from the documentary the most incriminating passages against their star columnist.

During this investigation, according to the news site Les Jours, seven people denounced the actions of the sports journalist.

"Pierre Ménès and his employer separated on good terms. Canal +, after having studied all the elements, including this internal report, had not dismissed him for fault. They had reached an amicable agreement, which proves that there is no evidence that allows Pierre Ménès to be held responsible, "his lawyer, Me Arash Derambarsh, responded to AFP, adding that his client was" very calm ".

The latter is notably accused of having lifted Marie Portolano's skirt and of having touched her buttocks, off the air and in front of the audience of the Canal Football Club program, in 2016. He claims not to remember it, in due to serious health problems at the time.

He is also accused of having forcibly kissed two columnists, Isabelle Moreau and Francesca Antoniotti, during television broadcasts.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior Camille Chaize then recalled that "kissing someone by force / by surprise, him + grabbing the buttocks + ... On a TV set" is a "sexual assault punishable by law" .

Judged in June in Paris

After the results of this internal investigation, the Hauts-de-Seine labor inspectorate (department where the headquarters of Canal + is based) decided in December to take legal action, which therefore opened an investigation.

Pierre Ménès left Canal + last summer after these revelations which prompted him to present his “regrets” and “most sincere apologies” to his “victims”.

The former Canal + columnist Pierre Ménès, October 15, 2021 in Paris FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives

"I will never be resumed doing things like that", he said, while estimating that since the emergence of the movement "#Metoo, we can no longer say anything, we can no longer do anything".

He was also sidelined from the famous Fifa football video game, to which he had been lending his voice for years.

Mr. Ménès will also be tried in June 2022 in Paris, for another case of sexual assault.

At the end of the PSG-Nantes match on November 20, 2021 at the Parc des Princes, a woman reported to the police acts of sexual assault for which Pierre Ménès would be responsible, without filing a complaint.

The Paris prosecutor's office had opened an investigation.

The respondent, who disputes the facts, had been placed in police custody and at the end of it, he was issued a summons by judicial police officer (COPJ) to be tried on June 8.

In Nanterre, a judicial investigation by the head of "moral harassment" and targeting the chronicler was also opened in December 2020, following a complaint with the constitution of civil party in May 2020 by his former assistant Emmanuel Trumer, who accuses him of "homophobia" and "racism".

A first complaint in this case was dismissed in October 2020 "for insufficiently characterized offense".

© 2022 AFP