“Mr. Quatennens has been summoned to appear before the Public Prosecutor in the form of a CRPC,” said Me Jade Dousselin, his lawyer, confirming information from BFMTV.

"The facts against him are the slap that took place more than a year ago in an already mentioned context of mutual aggressiveness and the text messages he sent after their separation and whose lack of maliciousness had already recognized," she said.

"No other offence, in particular that of harassment retained at the start of the investigation, has been retained," she added.

The deputy "accepted this procedure in the continuity of his desire for truth and exemplarity", in this case, she put forward.

He "was able to indicate during the investigation with the police and the justice system the reciprocity of the tensions within his couple" in the process of separation, she noted.

Sick leave

The CRPC allows the prosecutor to propose a sentence to a defendant who recognizes the facts of which he is accused during a first stage behind closed doors.

If this proposal is accepted, it is submitted to a judge on the occasion of a public hearing.

This judge can then refuse the proposal, but cannot modify or complete it.

If the defendant refuses the proposed sentence, or if it is not approved by the judge, the case is sent back to the correctional court.

The announcement of the launch of this procedure comes as La France insoumise tries to plan a return of Adrien Quatennens to the National Assembly, two months after he admitted in a press release violence against his wife, including a slap.

Adrien Quatennens at the National Assembly, August 3, 2022 Alain JOCARD AFP / Archives

He had made this admission after a publication of the Canard Enchaîné reporting a handrail deposited by his wife.

The Lille prosecutor's office had indicated in mid-September that it had opened an investigation as part of its "proactive criminal policy for the treatment of domestic violence".

Céline Quatennens then filed a second handrail on text messages sent by her husband, then filed a complaint against him on September 26, according to Me Dousselin, "without adding any new element" to those contained in his handrails.

The deputy from the North spoke publicly on the weekend of November 12 with two tweets after the collapse of a building in Lille.

A first since its press release of September 18.

© 2022 AFP