The Horizons Political Bureau decided on Saturday to “immediately” suspend Senator Joël Guerriau, suspected of having unknowingly drugged a member of parliament with a view to sexually assaulting her, AFP learned from the party. “Deeply shocked by the facts at the origin of the accusations”, the members of this Office decided “unanimously” to “immediately” suspend the senator, before initiating “a disciplinary procedure which could lead to definitive exclusion” , said the party of Edouard Philippe, who will call the complainant Sandrine Josso (MoDem), according to a source at Horizons. Joël Guerriau was indicted on Friday evening and placed under judicial supervision.
According to information collected by Europe 1, Joël Guerriau tested positive for several drugs: cocaine, MDMA and opiates. It was during a party on Tuesday that the 66-year-old man invited his centrist colleague. The complainant would have felt ill after having a drink on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday at the Parisian home of the senator, with whom she did not have an intimate relationship, according to the public prosecutor.
The MP was able to “extricate herself at the last minute from this ambush”
The senator was indicted and placed under judicial supervision on Friday evening. Samples from Sandrine Josso’s body revealed the presence of ecstasy and searches were carried out at the senator’s office and at his home where investigators found ecstasy, according to the prosecution. Joël Guerriau denied the accusations during a confrontation. According to Sandrine Josso’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, the MP was “seized after drinking a glass of champagne”, then saw the senator “grab a small plastic bag containing something white”, and was able to “extricate himself at the last minute from this ambush”.
Joël Guerriau “will fight” to “demonstrate that he never wanted to administer to his work colleague and long-time friend a substance to abuse her” and “will demonstrate that it was a handling error which caused the dramatic inconvenience,” his lawyer Mr. Rémi-Pierre Drai told AFP.
Joël Guerriau denies the facts
According to sources close to the case, Joël Guerriau said he believed he had obtained, from a member of the Senate, a euphoric and not ecstasy, for his own consumption in order to cope with what he described. like personal trials.
A banker by profession, elected to the upper house since 2011, Joël Guerriau is secretary of the Senate and vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces. Asked Saturday about franceinfothe boss of the centrist Union group Hervé Marseille “thinks that there will be precautionary measures” against him in the upper house.