French justice opened a preliminary investigation on Friday after the broadcast of a resounding television report in which several women accuse the former host and former minister Nicolas Hulot of rape and sexual assault, which he fiercely denies.
At least six women, including a minor at the time of the facts, implicate Nicolas Hulot. In a 62-minute report aired Thursday evening on the investigative program Correspondent, on the public channel France2, three of them testified, two with their faces uncovered.
Sylvia says she was sexually assaulted in 1989, at the age of 16, by Nicolas Hulot, in the latter’s car, after being invited to attend a program that he then hosted in Paris on public radio.
Cécile recounts for her part to have repelled in 1998, in a taxi in Moscow, the assaults of the ex-host of the famous program on the environment Ushuaia, which “touches her breasts, the crotch”, when she was 23 years old.
The Paris prosecutor announced the opening of this investigation without a complaint having been filed.
It follows a habit taken by the Paris prosecutor’s office for a few years as soon as a minor victim is mentioned, which is the case in this case, in particular to check if there are no others.
The investigations, entrusted to the brigade for the protection of minors, will aim to “determine whether the facts denounced can characterize a criminal offense and whether, in view of their seniority, the prescription of public action has been acquired”, specified the prosecutor.
“Lynching”
A third woman, who says she worked with him in 2001, says he kissed her “full on the mouth” by surprise after a business meeting.
The televised investigation also includes the testimony of environmental activist Claire Nouvian and returns to the rape complaint filed in 2008 by Pascale Mitterrand, granddaughter of former French President François Mitterrand (1981-1995), whose revelation had made a lot of noise at the beginning of 2018 before being closed without follow-up.
At the Paris prosecutor’s office, one of the prosecutors statutorily responsible for overseeing this new investigation is the one who closed the 2008 investigation.
Two other women, the former television host Maureen Dor and a former employee of the private channel TF1, also transmitted to the show Correspondent written testimonies on facts of which they accuse Nicolas Hulot.
The day before the broadcast of the report, the former Minister of Ecological Transition (2017-2018) of President Emmanuel Macron had formally denied these accusations of sexual assault and announced to leave public life “definitively” to protect his relatives and his foundation. fallout from a “lynching”.
Lawyer Alain Jakubowicz, who defends the former host with Jacqueline Laffont, welcomed the opening of an investigation. “I obviously prefer this framework of the investigation, of the police and justice authorities registered within a framework of law, that the trial made on television channels with the conviction to the key”, he declared. “The problem, of course, is that this survey […], we already know the legal outcome, it is that there is a limitation. “
In France, since a recent law, the statute of limitations for rape is 20 years, and 30 years for rapes having been committed against minors from the age of majority of the victim.
“What I saw yesterday are poignant, even chilling testimonies for some, and which remind us of the need for justice to do its job,” said French government spokesman Gabriel Attal.
A position that contrasts with that of many members of the government in 2018, when the rape complaint of Pascale Mitterrand was unveiled.
According to the spokesperson, at the time, “there was support for the rule of law, for the presumption of innocence”. “Today, judged Mr. Attal, there are additional testimonies which are added, which were not known at the time. “