It is the third search linked to the Matzneff affair, the French writer at the heart of a preliminary investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor's office for "rapes of minors under 15 years of age", after the book of Vanessa Springora's testimony.
The hotel where Gabriel Matzneff resides in Bordighera, Italy, was searched on Wednesday. He has taken refuge there since the case broke out.
The 83-year-old writer is suspected of having taken with him archives useful for the investigation, specifies a source close to the file. The search was carried out by the Italian police under the authority of the Genoa public prosecutor's office, in the presence of French investigators from the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence against Persons (OCRVP).
At Gallimard too
These same police officers who had inspected his Parisian home on February 13. The latter were looking for written documents on the writer's relations with minors. Documents that have not been published, or redacted from certain passages.
The first search had targeted Gallimard's premises, still in Paris, on February 12. In the publishing house, the police combed through the computers of proofreaders and proofreaders, and left with computers and documents.
A call for witnesses was broadcast on February 11 by the Paris prosecutor's office, anxious not to leave victims on the side.