#French #minister #targeted #sexual #assault
A French cabinet minister became the target of a charge of attempted rape on Monday, prosecutors said, the latest allegation of sexual misconduct against a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
The complaint against Solidarity and Social Cohesion Minister Damien Abad is “currently under investigation,” they told AFP.
News website Mediapart reported earlier Monday that a “centrist politician” had accused Abad of raping her during a party at his home in 2010.
Abad denied the allegations in a written statement to the media and said he would sue the woman for defamation.
“I will not leave these mendacious and scandalous allegations unanswered,” he said.
The woman’s attorney did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Earlier this month, Mediapart published an article based on an interview with the woman.
At the time of the party, she chaired a youth section of the Nouveau Center party, of which Abad was national president. He was also a member of the European Parliament.
The woman – who called Mediapart “Laetitia,” not her real name – told the site that Abad offered her a drink that night, but she noticed “something” floating at the bottom of the glass and spat out a sip of liquid the bathroom.
When she came out, she said, Abad waited for her, pushed her into an adjacent room and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.
“I was scared, I was paralyzed. I fought him, punched him in the stomach,” Mediapart quoted her as saying.
“Laetitia” said she was able to free herself thanks to the arrival of a party guest and fled the room.
Mediapart said it cited eight people in whom it either later confided or who witnessed some of the evening’s events.
The ad is the third allegation of sexual assault against the minister. The public prosecutor’s office has not yet launched a formal investigation.
The charges against Abad follow other allegations of sexual assault against French ministers.
Last week, Macron’s junior minister for development, Francophonie and international partnerships, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, denied allegations that she raped patients undergoing gynecological examinations after three women filed criminal charges.
Earlier, prosecutors were investigating Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin over a rape charge filed in 2017.
He denied any wrongdoing and prosecutors asked for the case to be dropped in January.
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