Activist Sophie Tissier files a civil complaint for sexual assault and harassment against Eric Coquerel

Activist Sophie Tissier has filed a new complaint with civil action for sexual assault and harassment against the head of La France insoumise Eric Coquerel, AFP learned Monday June 24 from the complainant. The investigation opened after a first complaint filed by this “yellow vest” figure was closed in February 2023 by the Paris prosecutor’s office. Eric Coquerel, candidate for re-election in the legislative elections in the first constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis, was then heard in a free hearing.

By this new complaint filed Friday in order to obtain the appointment of an investigating judge, Sophie Tissier hopes “that a thorough investigation be carried out, that the identities of the other victims be sought and that Mr. Coquerel be finally indicted and resigned from his functions“.

This 45-year-old woman had denounced the facts “which may amount to sexual assault” dating from August 23, 2014 in Grenoble (Isère). She told investigators that during a dancing evening, Eric Coquerel had had “strong gestures”. “His hands were sticky and slipped over inappropriate body parts…he brushed my butt repeatedly”, she said. The activist told him she “made it clear that he was bothering (him) and indisposing him”. Later that evening, at a nightclub, he would have it “grabbed by the waist and hips with insistence”.

Sophie Tissier made public her accusations against Eric Coquerel just after the latter’s accession, on June 30, 2022, to the strategic position of president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly. “After a dismissal by the prosecutor for insufficiently characterized offense and a clear confirmation of this decision by the public prosecutor’s office, this complaint with the constitution of a civil party is a non-event”commented Eric Coquerel’s lawyer, Olivia Ronen, to AFP.