The controversy around Damien Abad is once again revived.
A complaint for attempted rape was filed Monday against the Minister of Solidarity, who immediately replied by announcing a complaint for slanderous denunciation.
The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed that it had received a complaint on Monday for attempted rape targeting Damien Abad, revealed by
Mediapart
, specifying that it was "currently being analyzed".
According to the investigation site, she was filed by an "elected centrist", who accuses the minister of having tried to rape her during a party organized at his home in Paris in the first half of 2010.
"We must free the voice of women"
"Once again, I strongly contest any accusation of attempted rape or sexual assault," said the minister in a written statement sent to the press.
“I will not let these false and outrageous accusations go unanswered.
From that day, I asked my lawyers to file a complaint for slanderous denunciation”.
“It is an attempt to intimidate the other victims”, for his part reacted Me Raphaële Bialkiewicz, lawyer for the complainant, assuring that the latter was “serene”.
"My client has spoken so that it does not happen again, she responds to the call of Elisabeth Borne" who had invited women victims of sexual violence to file a complaint in mid-June, said Me Bialkiewicz.
“She has the intimate conviction that it is necessary to free the voice of women”.
In mid-June,
Mediapart
had published the testimony of this woman under the assumed name of "Laëtitia".
She was, during the events she denounces, president of a federation of the youth movement of the New Center, of which Damien Abad, then MEP, was the national president.
Three women accuse the minister
On the evening of the events, according to her account, Damien Abad "offered her a glass" at the bottom of which she saw "something": suspicious, she went to spit her sip into the toilet.
Still according to his words, he was waiting for her behind the door and everything went “very quickly”: the MEP would have “pushed her into a room opposite” then tried to force her to perform oral sex.
“I was scared, I was flabbergasted.
I struggled, I hit him in the stomach, ”she says.
"Laëtitia" says she was finally able to "get rid of" her alleged attacker and leave the room thanks to the irruption of a guest.
This is the third woman to accuse the minister of sexual violence, but to date no investigation has been opened.
One of them, Margaux (first name changed) filed a complaint twice, but these were dismissed in 2012, then in 2017, first for "lack of the complainant", then "lack of 'sufficiently serious offence'.
Company
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Justice
Paris
Damien Abad
Complaint
Rape
sexual assault
Ile-de-France