The justice dismissed the letter sent to him, in the midst of the legislative campaign, the elected Parisian Rachida Dati (LR) implicating Gilles Le Gendre (LREM) in cases of moral and sexual harassment.
For the facts qualified as non-denunciation of offenses or crimes and destruction of evidence, his letter received on Tuesday was closed for lack of offense, indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office to AFP. As for the suspicions of moral and sexual harassment, raised about the former president of the LREM parliamentary group in the National Assembly, the prosecution took no action as it stands, for lack of having received a complaint.
Judicial boxing
The battle of the legislative elections in the upscale neighborhoods of Paris had turned into a judicial fight with the desire of Rachida Dati to question in cases of harassment the deputy Gilles Le Gendre, candidate for his re-election, who in return accuses the mayor of the 7th arrondissement of slanderous denunciation. Rachida Dati’s report was based on an old union statement from parliamentary collaborators and press articles which denounced “the false allegations” of Gilles Le Gendre, the latter having claimed not to have been aware of accusations of sexual harassment aimed at deputies.
The former Minister of Justice saw it as a non-denunciation of an offense or even a crime. Rachida Dati, leader of the Parisian right, also echoed remarks by former LREM deputy Joachim Son-Forget, renowned for his fanciful positions, accusing the former head of LREM deputies of being “suspected himself of sexual abuse which (him) was reported directly by the alleged victims”.
Faced with internal rumors
“A few days before an election in a constituency of which I am the outgoing deputy and she, one of the mayors, support of one of my competitors, it is easy to imagine the motivations of this self-proclaimed character witness” , had castigated in a press release Gilles Le Gendre, candidate for his own succession in the 2nd Parisian district where his main competitor Jean-Pierre Lecoq, LR mayor of the 6th arrondissement. Gilles Le Gendre says he has already been confronted with these rumors internally before coming out cleared.
Until the next legislative elections on June 12 and 19, the presidential majority holds 14 of the 18 Parisian constituencies, only two of which are occupied by LR deputies.