Prosecuted for sexual harassment, a non-commissioned officer in the office of former French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly was sentenced to two years in prison and three years banned from practicing by the Paris court, Thursday June 20 .
This ban results in his exclusion from the institution for this period and the loss of his grade. He must also complete an awareness course on gender-based violence and this conviction will be entered in his criminal record. The defendant has ten days to appeal. The question of damages owed to the victim will be decided at a civil hearing on December 16.
It’s a decision “very satisfactory for the civil party and the victim, it is a fair decision in view of the facts committed and the consequences for the civil party, who will not return to the ranks”declared to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the victim’s lawyer, Me Elodie Maumont. “#metoo of the armies or not, we should be able to obtain this kind of decision in all cases of this type. »
At the hearing on May 16, the prosecutor requested two years in prison including twenty months suspended against Julien M. as well as his ineligibility, which leads to his exclusion from the army and the loss of his rank. “It’s a fair return of things, we are a bit equal and everyone gets back to their lives”assured the victim to journalists, moved by the deliberation, adding: “It’s the culmination of three years of anger and fear, it’s a huge relief. »
In 2023, 167 reports reported to the ministry
The president of the court listed the sexual allusions imposed on the complainant by Julien M: “you will laugh less once you have been sodomized”, “If you don’t do your job well, I’m going to fuck you”. The facts had lasted several months from September 2021 at the secretariat of the military cabinet of Florence Parly, at the Hôtel de Brienne, residence of the minister, where the victim – 21 years old at the time of the facts – worked with Julien M., his pair and hierarchical superior, at the time marshal of the lodgings.
To explain his actions and his “heavy jokes”Julien M., 41 years old, married and father of four children, declared that “workload and disproportionate mental load [étaient] the reasons why I lost my footing, but that is absolutely no excuse”.
Sanctioned by fifteen days of arrest, he was transferred to the Center for Advanced Military Studies (CHEM). The complainant, transferred to Brest after reporting the facts to her superiors in December 2021, declared having made two suicide attempts the following year.
In 2023, according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, 167 reports of sexual or gender-based violence were sent to the military hierarchy and 59 to the Thémis cell, created in 2014 to collect testimonies from victims and ensure the application of sanctions.
“It is an exemplary and necessary sanction and it really needs to infuse, that there is a before and an after”told AFP MP (Renaissance) Lætitia Saint-Paul, who had questioned the ministry on the case of Manon Dubois, victim of sexual assault when she served in the navy.
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The recent speech of Mme Dubois led to a wave of similar testimonies in the media. In the process, a damning report from the army inspectorate called for better care for victims of sexual and gender-based violence within the military institution and for harsher sanctions against alleged attackers.
Among the fifty recommendations is the more systematic triggering by the hierarchy of article 40 of the penal code, which stipulates that any civil servant who has knowledge of a crime or misdemeanor must inform the public prosecutor’s office.