L’former television host and former Minister of Ecological Transition Nicolas Hulot is heard, Tuesday, May 24 in free hearing, by investigators from the brigade for the protection of minors (BPM) in Paris on suspicion of rape and sexual assault, confirmed the prosecution, requested by Agence France-Presse.
The former TF1 star arrived at the BPM shortly before 2 p.m. in a taxi with tinted windows, AFP journalists noted. The hearing ended in the afternoon, according to two sources familiar with the matter. One of them specified that it had ended around 4:45 p.m. The Paris prosecutor’s office, requested by AFP, confirmed at the start of the evening that the hearing was over. Nicolas Hulot’s lawyer did not respond to requests from AFP.
In a report byCorrespondent broadcast in November 2021 on France 2, six women accused him of sexual violence committed between 1989 and 2001. One of them, a minor at the time of the facts denounced, had then filed a complaint. The Paris prosecutor’s office had opened a preliminary investigation for rape and sexual assault following this broadcast. Three of them testified to facts ranging from surprise kisses to an attempt at forced fellatio which would have been imposed on one of them, a minor at the time. A fourth, environmental activist Claire Nouvian, said that she had been warned by Nicolas Hulot’s “political” entourage before filming in 2008, so that she would avoid being alone with him.
READ ALSO “Special envoy”: what do the accusers of Nicolas Hulot say?
A complaint filed by a minor victim at the time of the events
Two other women, former host Maureen Dor and a former TF1 employee, had transmitted to Correspondent written testimonies concerning sexual assaults. In this case, at least one complaint was filed by a woman who was a minor at the time of the facts she denounces. She was heard by the police “soon after the opening of the preliminary investigation”, according to a source familiar with the matter. This one, named Sylvia, told Correspondentwith her face uncovered, having been sexually assaulted in 1989 at the age of 16 by Nicolas Hulot, in the latter’s car, after having been invited to attend a program he was then hosting in Paris.
A fourth complainant, environmental activist Claire Nouvian, said she had been warned by Nicolas Hulot’s “political entourage” before a shoot in 2008, so that she would avoid being alone with him. The investigations carried out by the BPM must “determine whether the facts denounced can characterize a criminal offense and whether, in view of their seniority, the prescription of the public action is acquired”, had specified the prosecutor, Laure Beccuau at the time of the opening of the preliminary investigation.
Hulot strongly denies the accusations
Anticipating the broadcast of this documentary, the former Minister of Ecology had refuted the accusations the day before, November 24, 2021, on BFMTV. “Neither near nor far, I committed these acts, these assertions are false,” he said. “I have never forced anyone”, he added, announcing to leave “definitively public life”. Appointed Minister of Ecological Transition during Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, he resigned at the end of August 2018 denouncing the lack of progress on the environment.
These revelations had created a shock wave among environmentalists. Matthieu Orphelin, then spokesman for the environmental candidate for the presidential Yannick Jadot, had been withdrawn because of his closeness to Nicolas Hulot.
The weekly Ebdo had revealed a few months earlier that the ex-host had been the subject in 2008 of a complaint for a rape committed in 1997, dismissed due to prescription. The complainant turned out to be Pascale Mitterrand, granddaughter of François Mitterrand. Once again, Nicolas Hulot had firmly rejected these accusations.
READ ALSOWhat facts behind Nicolas Hulot’s denials?