accused of sexual violence, who implicates him?

TAHA BOUHAFS. Taha Bouhafs, short Nupes candidate for the legislative elections in the Rhône and anti-racist activist, is accused of sexual violence. What do we know?

It’s a new media storm that could break over Taha Bouhafs. The anti-racist activist, very present on social networks, had been the subject of tensions within the union of the left following his investiture by the Nupes for the legislative elections, on the side of Vénissieux (Rhône). Criticized in particular because of his conviction for “racial insult”, he finally threw in the towel a few days after being invested. But if he himself explained that he withdrew due to an “unprecedented storm of attacks”, the reasons for his withdrawal could be much more complex.

This is indeed what reveals BFM-TV and Mediapart this Wednesday, May 11, 2022. On its site, the continuous news channel, like the investigative media, indicate that the 24-year-old man is the subject of accusations of sexual violence. Alleged facts that were reported to the Monitoring Committee against sexist and sexual violence of insubordinate France, a party that had invested Taha Bouhafs for the legislative elections. The two media argue that this is a single testimony and that a procedure was initiated following this report, recorded on Saturday, following the Nupes convention. Quickly, an interview was organized between Taha Bouhafs and two leaders of rebellious France, the deputies Clémentine Autain and Mathilde Panot. It was at the end of this exchange that it would have been agreed to withdraw the candidate, the object of attacks from all sides in recent days.

According to BFM-TV, only one testimony was recorded by LFI’s Gender Violence Monitoring Committee. An assertion corroborated by Mediapart who argues that the person who made the report is an ex-girlfriend of Taha Bouhafs, according to the latter’s statements to the investigation site. No more information has, at this stage, filtered through on the accuser, or even on the exact content of the charges against the activist. However, Caroline De Haas, feminist activist, adds to Médiapart that “two different testimonies, from people who do not know each other”, would also be in the file, reported, she said, at the beginning of May to a leader of LFI.

How does Taha Bouhafs respond to the accusations?

Cornered from all sides, Taha Bouhafs reacted to Mediapart, referring to the subject as a “slander”: “I was already exhausted, the report was the last straw that led me to withdraw. This is part of the slander mentioned in my statement.” If he does not respond to the accusation against him, the activist explained that he wanted to wait for the conclusions of the investigation: “I deeply believe in the political fight against violence against women and accept the process of welcoming speech. I consider that any person who is the subject of accusation must withdraw from public life pending the verification of this speech. Which I have decided to do. I am not aware of any other alerts.”

Taha Bouhafs, a longtime rebel, presented himself under the banner of Nupes in the 14th district of the Rhône, made up of the towns of Vénissieux, Saint-Fons and Saint-Priest. This position was previously held by LREM deputy Yves Blein, who won in the second round of the 2017 legislative elections against Damien Moncheau, FN candidate. At the time, the candidates of the left had arrived at the foot of the podium, with only 14.59% of the votes in the first round for the LFI Benjamin Nivard and 10.45% for Michèle Picard of the PCF. This year, Taha Bouhafs had to face the youtubeur policeman Bruno Attal, engaged for the Reconquête! party, who is also a character known for his very radical positions. A former trade unionist, he is a defender of the theory of the great replacement. He had made no secret of his desire to win this confrontation with Taha Bouhafs, calling him “racist, anti-Semitic and anti-cop“. For his part, the ex-LFI candidate wrote on Twitter: “This agent of the State who speaks of a great replacement and who stigmatizes Muslims and French people of North African origin will only win 2 things: 1 legal complaint, 1 electoral beating on June 12 “.

But the adventure very quickly stopped. Invested on May 7, withdrawn two days later. In a message posted on the night of May 9 to 10, he declared that he ultimately no longer competed for the deputation in the 14th district of the Rhône. He described a very complicated situation psychologically, with a rain of “slander”, “insult”, “death threat” poured on his person every day. “I hope this statement does not make you give up.” Before continuing by addressing Nupès activists who follow him closely on social networks: “keep fighting. For my part, I tried but I can’t do it anymore.”

If Taha Bouhafs is a highly criticized political and militant figure, he was nevertheless able to count on the faithful support of his camp, the Insoumis. On April 29, Alexis Corbière, the LFI spokesperson, during his visit to Europe 1, denounced a “crime of facies” on the part of the opponents of Taha Bouhafs, seeing in the latter’s recurring attacks a “relentlessness of little hyenas”. In the same way, the number 2 of the party, Adrien Quatennens, took a stand: “Taha Bouhafs is not racist. Taha Bouhafs is an activist from working-class neighborhoods whose form and expression perhaps does not please some beautiful people” at the microphone of LCI. Finally, it was the turn of Clémentine Autain, deputy LFI, to affirm that she supported the investiture of Taha Bouhafs on the set of Public Senate.

At the time of his withdrawal from the legislative campaign, he can once again count on their support. If Alexis Corbière and Adrien Quatennens said they “take note” of this decision, without however denying the “statement of failure” that it represents, others have openly defended it. This is the case of François Ruffin, who regretted the great “uniformity of the National Assembly”, during his passage on franceinfo on the morning of the 10th. “I want the National Assembly to be representative of the diversity of French society and we can consider that Taha Bouhafs represents part of the sensitivity of the French population”, he continued. Clémentine Autain, for her part, published a tweet of support, indignant at the racism and discrimination falling in bursts against a “young man without a diploma, from working-class neighborhoods and immigration”. Above all, it was Jean-Luc Mélenchon himself who regretted this withdrawal, believing that a “pack fell against him”, and that this exposure to insults should be “hard to live with at 25”. He even apologized for not having “know how to comfort him as much as necessary”.

At only 25 years old, this freelance journalist is a personality that has caused a lot of ink to flow. Originally from Isère, he first covered the news of struggles and social movements for the media There if I’m there and Media. He became known by filming Alexandre Benalla assaulting a couple of demonstrators at Place de la Contrescarpe in Paris on May 1, 2018. He was thus at the origin of the great “Benalla affair”. An anti-racist activist, he was also, with the Adama Committee and the Collective against Islamophobia in France, one of the initiators of the march against Islamophobia on November 10, 2019. This demonstration, organized to denounce the stigmatization of the French of Muslim faith, aroused criticism from the far right, and had even caused controversy on the left, the PS having refused to participate.

The controversies then followed, between the false rumor that he relayed concerning the death of a student after a police intervention during the occupation of the Parisian campus of Tolbiac or the Linda Kebbab affair. The latter is a police unionist whom Taha Bouhafs described as a “service Arab” on Twitter in June 2020. Linda Kebbab having filed a complaint, he was sentenced for the offense of public insult on the grounds of origin and a fine. of 1500 euros, a court decision which Taha Bouhafs appealed. The case is still under investigation and has not finished talking about it, since it is frequently used by his political opponents, in particular on the far right, to discredit him and his movement. In general, the attacks against him came from all sides, the communist Fabien Roussel having asked that he withdraw his candidacy: “I do not understand that rebellious France invests a candidate condemned for racial insult”, had- he explained, in reference to the Linda Kebbab case.

Be that as it may, LFI should still defend its voice against these opponents. On the morning of the 10th, Alexis Corbière promised that there would be a candidacy in this constituency, the party not wishing to let the communist Michèle Picard overtake him.