The Eric Coquerel case is now in the hands of justice. The deputy of La France insoumise (LFI), chairman of the finance committee of the National Assembly, is the subject of a preliminary investigation opened on July 12 by the Paris prosecutor’s office for “sexual assault and harassment”. These legal proceedings follow a complaint filed with the police station in Vanves (Hauts-de-Seine), on July 4, by Sophie Tissier for acts of ” sexual harassment “and “actions that may amount to sexual assault”. The complainant is a former activist of the Left Party (PG) who allegedly met Eric Coquerel on August 23, 2014, during the PG summer school in Grenoble.
In his complaint, Mr.me Tissier describes “displaced tactile gestures”, of the “sticky hands” on “inappropriate body parts for a dance”. She indicates that“He touched the buttocks several times. » She accuses Mr. Coquerel of having her “taken insistently by the waist and hips” in a nightclub and to have proposed to him, by SMS, “to go with him to his hotel. »
“My client spoke about it within the PG, specifies Etienne Lesage, the lawyer of Mme Tissier, contacted by The world. She was not listened to at the time. She sent emails and warned a journalist. But that did not interest at the time. As for all people who have experienced this kind of event, the slightest news item has revived the memory, the trauma. The promotion of Mr. Coquerel to the National Assembly thus revived my client’s pain. »
“Complete solidarity with him”
“Eric Coquerel is at the disposal of the investigators and will seize, if necessary, the opportunity to finally be confronted with a specific accusation in order to be able to contest the facts with which he is accused”reacted Wednesday evening, with AFP, the lawyer of Mr. Coquerel, Me Olivia Ronen. To ensure his defense, the deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis did not draw from among the half-dozen lawyers who regularly assist LFI. He chose master Ronen who was Salah Abdeslam’s counsel during the trial of the November 13, 2015 attacks. A strategy that surprises even some rebellious people. Whatever happens, his political situation is weakened, his re-election at the head of the strategic finance commission, within a year, promises to be compromised.
Since the opening of the preliminary investigation, his party remains, for the moment, silent, apart from a tweet from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Wednesday July 13: “A petty reply against Eric Coquerel intended to smear him without cause. Complete solidarity with him. » His silent lieutenants confer to decide which line of collective expression to adopt. Within the New Popular Social and Ecological Union (Nupes), “we discuss to adopt the right positionintervenes Olivier Faure, first secretary of the Socialist Party. The principle is respect for women’s words while waiting for justice to pass. In the Coquerel case, the facts attributed to him are not comparable to the alleged rapes of Abad. What should be the attitude for a hand on the hips? »
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