A French senator has been tentatively charged with drugging a lawmaker with ecstasy in order to rape her, prosecutors said Friday.
Joël Guerriau, 66, a member of the center-right Horizons party, was arrested on Thursday, two days after his colleague Sandrine Josso, 48, allegedly drank a glass of champagne at his home in Paris and then complained of feeling unwell.
Josso said she remembered Guerriau grabbing a “small plastic bag with something white in a drawer in his kitchen,” her lawyer Julia Minkowski told AFP.
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French Senator Joel Guerriau attends a question time to the government at the French Senate in Paris, France on July 16, 2020. Guerriau has been tentatively charged with giving a female deputy ecstasy in order to rape her. (David Niviere/Abaca/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images))
“She had to exert tremendous physical and intellectual strength to overcome her fear and free herself from this last-minute ambush,” Minkowski said, adding that her client was “in a state of shock.”
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, Guerriau has been provisionally charged with drugging another deputy with the intent to commit rape or sexual assault. Preliminary charges under French law mean investigating judges have good reason to suspect wrongdoing but are allowed more time before deciding whether a case should go to trial.
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French MP Sandrine Josso speaks to the government in Paris on July 23, 2019. Joël Guerriau, 66, a member of the center-right Horizons party, has accused her of administering drugs. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Tests revealed that Josso had ecstasy in her system, investigators said, prompting them to file criminal charges.
Police later searched Guerriau’s office and home and found ecstasy there, radio station RMC reported.
According to the Associated Press, Guerriau has been suspended from the Horizons party.
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The senator’s lawyer, Remi-Pierre Drai, emphasized in an initial statement that “we are miles away from the obscene interpretation that could be derived from reading initial press reports.”
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“Guerriau is not a predator… he is an honest, respected and respectable man who will restore the honor of him and his family,” the lawyer said.
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Guerriau was also charged with drug possession and placed under court supervision, his attorney added.
His lawyer said Guerriau did not intend to drug Josso to abuse her and has apologized to her. Drai said in a statement that it was “a handling error” that caused the lawmaker to fall ill, without elaborating.
The two deputies reportedly did not have a romantic relationship and had been friends for about ten years.
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Josso sits in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, and is a member of the Democratic, MoDem and Independent factions. The French Senate is the upper house.
(Geoffroy Van der Hasselt / AFP)
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Guerriau, who was originally a banker, has served in the French Senate since 2011 and is deputy chairman of the Foreign and Military Affairs Committee.
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Josso has been in office since 2017.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.