Judge drops rape case against France’s interior minister

A Paris coroner on Monday ordered the dropping of a five-year rape investigation into French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, his lawyers said.

“The justice system has determined for the fourth time in five years that Mr. Darmanin has not committed a criminal offense,” said Mathias Chichportich and Pierre-Olivier Sur.

A court source confirmed to AFP that the case against Darmanin, a right-wing staunch supporter of President Emmanuel Macron’s government, has been dropped – although the decision is still subject to appeal.

The latest conclusion of an inquiry in Darmanin comes just a week after Macron fired a junior minister, former Conservative MP Damien Abad, who had been charged with attempted rape.

Another junior minister who is still in office, former gynecologist Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, is under investigation by prosecutors after several women accused her of rape during medical examinations.

Darmanin’s lawyers said the Home Secretary himself would not comment on the investigation into plaintiff Sophie Patterson-Spatz’s 2009 allegations of rape, sexual harassment and breach of trust.

Patterson-Spatz says Darmanin raped her after she asked him for help to get a criminal record wiped while he was legal adviser to the UMP, the predecessor of France’s main right-wing party, the Republicans.

Neither she nor her lawyer immediately commented on the termination of the investigation.

Prosecutors had already asked for the case to be dismissed in January, and Darmanin has launched his own defamation case against his accuser.

The case has haunted him since his appointment to the Interior Ministry in 2020, with feminists giving particular criticism to his presence in one of France’s key offices of state.