This is a new twist in the Taha Bouhafs case, one more in the series of accusations of gender-based and sexual violence (VSS) which has been battering left-wing political parties for almost a year; almost paralyzes them. According to our information, one of the two accusers of the militant journalist, ex-candidate of La France insoumise in the legislative elections, withdrew the testimony she had filed with the internal LFI cell responsible for VSS. “She changed her mind because she understood that her testimony had no place to be,” said a source, without further comment.
On May 10, 2022, in the middle of the legislative campaign, Taha Bouhafs gave up running in the 14th district of the Rhône, in Vénissieux, under the Nupes label. Three days earlier, on May 7, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party had indeed received a “testimony relating to alleged acts of sexual violence” on a rebellious activist and ex-girlfriend of the person concerned. In reality, two reports had indeed been recorded by the cell.
Another anonymous report
After a silence of more than two months on the affair, Taha Bouhafs published an open letter in which he reproached La France insoumise for not having allowed him to defend himself in a “fair and equitable” manner. He castigated more particularly the deputy LFI Clémentine Autain, who had refused to give him more details on the accusations against him as well as any confrontation with the accuser who had asked to remain anonymous. The party and the elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis retorted in an official press release that they “not recognize themselves” in the story given by Bouhafs, nor be able to “transmit to him the information sent to the cell” to respect “the desire for anonymity plaintiffs”.
Almost a year after the start of the case, Taha Bouhafs still does not know the content of the other anonymous report made to the internal cell at LFI. If his relatives say they are “relieved” by this turnaround, they still claim that the activist can be confronted with the reproaches made to him and defend himself if necessary. In L’Express, the lawyers of Taha Bouhafs indicate: “We take note of the withdrawal of a testimony in this political ‘procedure’ from the start vitiated by its absence of any contradictory character and from which we have not obtained, to date , no factual element. It is time for the relentlessness to stop and for our client, who is 25 years old and is not the subject of any legal proceedings, to be able to resume a more or less normal life.”