Louise Bernard with AFP
François Durpaire, specialist in the United States and well known to BFMTV viewers since he has appeared there very regularly since 2011, has been indicted for rape. He has just been presented to a judge, after a complaint from his ex-girlfriend for rape. The television channel has announced that he will be removed from the air.
The facts would have taken place in 2011. The ex-girlfriend of François Durpaire, specialist in the United States and consultant BFMTV, claimed to have been raped, when she came to ask for an explanation of their affair. They would have met again in 2020 and would then have agreed on a financial transaction, according to The Parisian, of 60,000 euros. But the woman would have changed her mind and then filed a complaint, the newspaper continues. The complaint that led to the opening of an investigation, the placement in police custody of François Durpaire and then his indictment.
The university placed under judicial control
The academic, who considers the charges “unfounded” according to his lawyer, was placed under judicial supervision. Contacted by AFP, François Durpaire’s lawyer, Me Dorothée Bisaccia-Bernstein, considered that the opening of this judicial investigation offered her client “the opportunity to express himself in a contradictory way in the face of these accusations”. and stressed that the investigating judges had considered “that he was sufficiently trustworthy to impose a fairly light judicial review on him”.
“It is normal and legitimate for women’s voices to be heard, but it is also legitimate for an investigation to be opened to allow the manifestation of the truth,” she added.