The lawyers of journalist Taha Bouhafs denounce a procedure “outside the law”led by the committee for monitoring sexual and gender-based violence (CVSS) of La France insoumise (LFI), which prevents him, according to them, from responding to the accusations against him. “Taha Bouhafs intends, through his counsel, to reaffirm his right to know the accusations against him in order to be able to respond to them, in the same way as any publicly accused citizen”, write Mare William Bourdon, Raphaël Kempf and Vincent Brengarth in a press release sent Thursday July 7 to Agence France-Presse.
Candidate for the legislative elections in the Rhône, the 25-year-old journalist retired on May 10, citing the ” racism “ of“unprecedented attacks” against him led by Macronie, the right and part of the left. But LFI announced the next day that an internal investigation had been opened against it by the CVSS. Taha Bouhafs came out of his silence on Tuesday, July 5, to criticize LFI for not having allowed him to defend himself against the accusations, and to claim “fair and equitable procedure” in a six-page open letter posted on social media.
“between oneself”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party defended itself by explaining that it could not send him “the information sent to the cell”nor organize a confrontation, in the name of “the desire for anonymity of the complainants”. But “in respect of the contradictory, he may be heard by our authorities”adds the movement, which continues ” [son] work of conviction with the plaintiffs so that they take legal action”.
“This situation is not tolerable because it seriously disregards the rights of Taha Bouhafs”consider his lawyers. “Everyone must measure the risk of ‘political justice’ which would be based on ‘clues’ of which only the addressees would know the content, which would be exercised without a perfectly defined procedure, in defiance of the adversarial principle and without access to factual elements” , they add, considering that “the procedure followed against Taha Bouhafs is ‘outside the law'”.
The three lawyers question “more generally the need to review the internal procedures of certain political formations or associative structures, to avoid, in the name of the legitimate fight against sexual violence, that trials are conducted unilaterally in an interpersonal environment that cannot guarantee neutrality and impartiality”.
” To make choices “
In his press release, Mr. Bouhafs specifically attacks Clémentine Autain. He criticizes the LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis for having refused to confront him with an accuser and to communicate to him the details of the charges, but also for having wanted to conceal the real reason for his dismissal, by prompting him to instead assert the weight of racist attacks against him.
Mme Autain responded to these accusations on Thursday, in a column published by The Obs. Regarding the first accusation, “I say it again and again: we respected the complainants’ desire for confidentiality (…)essential condition (…) for women to give their testimony”. About the second, “if I never told Taha Bouhafs to step down on the pretext of racist attacks, the latter did indeed take place”writes M.me Aunt.
In short, she maintains, it is not a question for La France insoumise “to do justice, nor to establish the truth. A party has the right, on the other hand, to make choices: not to agree to be represented by a man implicated for acts of sexist harassment or sexual assault”.