Former minister Damien Abad, targeted by rape charges he “strongly contest”announced on Friday June 30 to have “was informed by the prosecution of an opening of a judicial investigation” concerning him.
The deputy of Ain let it be known, in a press release, that he “wishes to be heard quickly by the investigating magistrate in order to defend himself against despicable accusations, which he strongly contests”. A judicial investigation was opened on June 21 against him for charges of rape and attempted rape, a judicial source confirmed to Agence France-Presse.
In his press release, Mr. Abad “Recalls that a first in-depth investigation was the subject of a particularly motivated classification without follow-up. Moreover, the confrontation requested by the investigators after the hearing of Damien Abad and with the agreement of the latter, never took place.. The former minister was heard on June 7 in police custody. He was released the same evening.
An investigating judge in charge of the case
Justice had requested two weeks earlier the lifting of his parliamentary immunity as part of the preliminary investigation in Paris. Mr. Abad said it himself “favorable”, and his immunity had been lifted unanimously by the Bureau of the National Assembly. With the opening of a judicial investigation, it is an examining magistrate who is in charge of the case.
The former leader of the Les Républicains deputies was appointed in May 2022 Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities, taken from President Emmanuel Macron on the right. From the day after his appointment, Mediapart relayed accusations of rape against him, dating from 2010 and 2011. The complaints were closed in 2012 and then in 2017.
But, at the end of June 2022, a new complaint was filed, leading to the opening of the preliminary investigation. Mr. Abad had finally left the executive at the beginning of July 2022. Re-elected in the meantime as a deputy for a third term, he has since been discreet at the Palais Bourbon.