(Quebec) The jury trial of former PQ Rep. Harold LeBel on charges of sexual assault begins Monday.
Posted at 6:13am
Caroline Plante The Canadian Press
It is not yet known if the 60-year-old man will testify at the Rimouski courthouse during the three-week trial.
At the beginning of March, Mr. LeBel announced that he would no longer stand in the state elections because his trial fell in the middle of the election period.
“Deeply disappointed” at having to be “forced” out of politics, he made it clear that his decision had nothing to do with “a possible assumption about the outcome of this affair”.
Harold LeBel was arrested by Sûreté du Québec police officers on December 15, 2020 and then expelled from the Parti Québécois for the duration of the trial.
He quickly announced through his attorney his intention to plead not guilty to the sexual assault charges against him.
The acts Mr. LeBel is accused of occurred in 2017; the identity of the alleged victim is protected by a publication ban.
Harold LeBel, a longtime sovereignist activist, was elected under the PQ banner in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. He has sat in Parliament as an independent Member of Parliament since December 2020.
News of his arrest ripped through Parliament Hill, where the MP was well known.