what are the alleged facts?

LASALLE. Jean Lassalle is targeted by charges of rape and sexual assault. The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office has opened a preliminary investigation against the politician.

Jean Lassalle is immersed in the heart of an investigation. A woman accuses the former presidential candidate of rape and sexual assault. Justice opened a preliminary investigation targeting the politician in May 2023, according to information from BFM TV The judicial police are in charge of the investigations. The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office specified to France info that the facts are “unconfirmed for the time being and the investigations are continuing”.

The facts denounced by the complainant date from 2010. The politician was then a deputy for Pyrénées-Atlantiques and a candidate in the regional elections in Aquitaine under the label of MoDem. The 45-year-old accuser, according to her account, contacted Jean Lassalle to solve her daughter’s school problems. “We were in the middle of the campaign for the regional elections. I thought the candidates could help me,” she explained to BFM TV. Of the three candidates at the time, only Jean Lassalle answered him. After a first contact, this woman joined the campaign team of the regional candidate. One evening, the deputy would have asked him “to join him in a large hotel in Bordeaux”. “I go there with my posters and my pot of glue thinking it’s a team meeting,” said the mother in her testimony.

What are the rape charges against Jean Lassalle?

Determined to denounce the facts, the complainant indicated that she found herself alone with Jean Lassalle in a hotel room: “He kissed me twice. I pushed him away. I even told him that I could call someone else if he wanted. , in his version of the facts, to have been the victim of a rape the same evening.

The woman who accuses Jean Lassalle of abuse would then have her story told to relatives, but would have decided not to file a complaint at the time. It was in 2023, 13 years after the events, according to the chronology of her story, that she indicates that she found the strength to denounce the sexual assault and the rape that she says she suffered. “I realized that I had been in pain for twelve years because of that. It even led me to attempt suicide. And then, recently, I decided to change my life.

What is Jean Lassalle’s defense?

BFM TV announced that Jean Lassalle was to be summoned in the coming days during an open hearing. This information was not commented on by the politician or his chief of staff. The former candidate for the presidency of the Republic is currently on the set of a reality TV show on M6.