The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Tuesday January 24 the dismissal order from which Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin benefited in July 2022, accused since 2017 of rape. Sophie Patterson-Spatz, his accuser, will appeal to the Court of Cassation.
” For the fifth time in nearly six years, justice affirms that no wrongdoing can be blamed on Mr. Gérald Darmanin “, reacted the lawyers of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. ” Seizure of the entire file, three magistrates of the Paris Court of Appeal today confirm this position already adopted by four other magistrates, including two different investigating judges “, they pointed out.
” Consent with regard to the loi”
This case judged in July 2022 had indeed resulted in a dismissal order in favor of the minister. The investigating judge considered that the complainant was ” consenting to the lawi”.
In the spring of 2017, Sophie Patterson-Spatz, 50, filed a first complaint for rape, for facts that allegedly occurred in Paris in 2009. The complainant contacted Gérald Darmanin, then project manager in the business affairs department. of the UMP (which has since become LR), to obtain support when she wanted to revise a 2005 conviction for blackmail and malicious calls against an ex-companion.
” Pass to the pan »
According to her, Gérald Darmanin would have undertaken to write a letter to support his request to the Chancellery, and would have asked in exchange for a sexual relationship. If the complainant and the minister both recognize a sexual relationship, Sophie Patterson-Spatz believes that she was forced to ” go to the pan “, the Minister of the Interior claims to have ” given in to charms “of a complainant” enterprising “. At the heart of this case, an exchange of text messages where the current minister responds in the affirmative to accusations of abuse of position.
(With AFP)
►Also read: France: dismissal for Gérald Darmanin on rape charges