A French senator was placed in custody on Thursday, November 16, on suspicion of drugging an MP with a view to assaulting her, a source familiar with the case told Le Monde. Joël Guerriau, a centrist senator from western France, was being held for “administering to a person without their knowledge a substance likely to diminish their judgment or self-control to commit a rape or sexual assault,” prosecutors said on Thursday.
While the prosecutors named the victim as “a woman, who filed a complaint”, several sources familiar with the case told Agence France-Presse (AFP) she was an MP in the Assemblée Nationale.
She allegedly felt strange after accepting a drink on Tuesday night at the 66-year-old senator’s Paris home. Tests revealed that she had ecstasy in her system, investigators added, prompting her to file the criminal complaint. Guerriau was arrested and held in custody under caught-in-the-act rules allowing police to override his parliamentary immunity, prosecutors said. Broadcaster RMC, which first reported the story, said that police had searched his office and home, where prosecutors confirmed they found ecstasy. Prosecutors said the two were not in an intimate relationship.
Guerriau’s lawyer, Remi-Pierre Drai, said the truth of the case was “very far from the indecent interpretation that could be deduced from reading the initial press reports”. He added that he was “outraged to see information from the investigation in the press”. “I’m amazed that the victim’s name has not been leaked, unlike my client’s,” he added.
Originally a banker, Guerriau has been a member of the Sénat since 2011 and is deputy head of its foreign and military affairs committee. Environment minister Christophe Béchu, a leading figure in the Horizons party of which Guerriau is a member, on Friday told broadcaster France Inter that “of course he won’t be able to stay if there is the slightest doubt” about his guilt. Party chiefs are to hold a meeting early Saturday “where we’ll have the opportunity to discuss this situation,” he added. Guerriau “will have to face the consequences if the least of this is true,” Béchu said.
Horizons is led by former prime minister Edouard Philippe, now mayor of northern city Le Havre and one of France’s most popular politicians since leaving office. The party is allied with – but not part of – the ruling Renaissance party of President Emmanuel Macron.
Philippe is widely tipped to run in 2027 to succeed Macron, who will be unable to stand for a third time due to term limits. The former prime minister joined Guerriau on the campaign trail for senatorial elections earlier this year.
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