eight months suspended prison sentence required against Pierre Ménès

Pierre Ménès will know on April 19 if he is convicted by the courts. The star journalist was tried on Wednesday March 8 before the Paris Criminal Court. During the hearing, which lasted more than five hours, the prosecution requested eight months in prison suspended and a fine of 10,000 euros against him. Pierre Ménès is suspected of having sexually assaulted two sales assistants from the Nike store on the Champs-Élysées in June 2018 and a hostess from the Parc des Princes in 2021 during a Ligue 1 match. Pierre Ménès did not stop for the hearing to denounce a set-up on the part of the three plaintiffs.

>> Pierre Ménès case at Canal +: an investigation opened for sexual assault and sexual harassment against the sports journalist

In a slow tone, Pierre Ménès answers questions seated. The 59-year-old sports journalist left Canal + in the summer of 2021 after the broadcast of a documentary on sexism in the newsrooms. Weakened by knee and foot pain, he said he was “relieved” to be able to explain himself, while expressing his amazement at the facts of which he is accused. “When I learned about the Parc des Princeshe said, I fell from the clouds.” The journalist assures us that it is “all of a sudden”, which he will repeat twice. A plot to attack his reputation as a man “Who says aloud what people think quietly, it does not please everyone.”

A “high degree of intimidation”, according to the prosecutor

For the prosecutor, this notion of set-up “is not believable”. “I saw Pierre Ménès’ tax notice, the victims did not file a complaint, there are no claims for compensationshe points out. The set-up does not hold.” The magistrate considers “that we are not into traits of humor that a Puritan society would no longer accept, but it is an abuse of power of notoriety.” She denounces a “high degree of intimidation” from the former star of Canal +, facing women who have not filed a complaint, for fear of reprisals and who are absent from the hearing. But who are we talking about, answers the defense. “Pierre Ménès is not in the Russian mafia, all the same!”, ironically Caroline Wassermann one of his lawyers.

Pierre Menes disputes everything and concedes a “check”, chest to chest with one of the Nike saleswomen. “Is it between men and women?”asks the president. “I’ve seen that before in mixed doubles tennis., replies the journalist. Faced with the eight-month sentence required by the prosecution, another of his advisers, Arash Derambarsh, protested: “Eight months? But what a shame! This is not the MeToo alias Pierre Ménès trial, we are doing criminal law not activism.”

His lawyers plead for release and denounce a file “built on quicksand.” Caroline Wassermann even goes so far as to speak ofan empty folder”. Both highlight an incomplete investigation, which the president has also noted on several occasions.