A call for witnesses was launched Tuesday as announced in the morning by the Paris prosecutor Rémy Heitz to find "victims" in the context of the investigation opened for rape of a minor under 15 years old targeting the writer Gabriel Matzneff.
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"You have been the victim or witness of sexual acts, likely to concern this investigation, the judicial police want to guarantee that it is mobilized and is perfectly available to accept your word", is it written in the call to witness to which a telephone number is attached (06 83 67 43 57). "Whatever the delay, whatever the circumstances or the people who could be involved, the police encourage all those who have information to testify," added this appeal launched by the Central Office. for the suppression of violence against people (OCRVP).
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In the morning, Heitz announced on Europe 1 that a call for witnesses would be launched during the day to avoid there being "forgotten victims". The investigation had been opened by the prosecution on January 3 the day after the publication of the autobiographical novel "The Consent" in which the editor Vanessa Springora denounced her relationship under the influence of the writer Gabriel Matzneff when she was a minor, in the years 80. "Beyond the facts described by Vanessa Springora", the investigation will endeavor "to identify any other possible victims who may have suffered similar offenses on national territory or abroad", had already specified M Heitz in his press release announcing the opening of the investigation.
"No forgotten victims"
The editor was heard at the end of January by the investigators but the facts concerning her are prescribed. In addition to the "manifestation of the truth" and the verification concerning the prescription of the facts, "the approach of the Paris prosecutor's office" when it comes to minors, is to "make sure" by opening an investigation "that there are no forgotten victims ”, explained Mr. Heitz on Europe 1.“ If there have been other victims ”, we must“ allow them to express themselves, to take their word into account and to prosecute the perpetrator, ”he added, explaining the purpose of the call for witnesses.
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Vanessa Springora was the first to testify among the adolescent girls seduced by Gabriel Matzneff, whose behavior, described in his own books, has long been tolerated in the Parisian literary world. In 2013, he won the Renaudot essay prize. In an interview published Tuesday in the New York Times, Gabriel Matzneff, 83, is angry with those who want to judge him. "Who are they to judge their fellow men? These associations for virtue, how do they sleep, what do they do in bed and with whom do they sleep, what are their secret and repressed desires? ”Asked the writer interviewed by the American daily on the Italian Riviera where he has taken refuge since the affair broke out.
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In an interview broadcast at the end of January on BFMTV, he said he "regretted" his past pedophile practices in Asia, while claiming that "at the time", "nobody ever spoke of crime". In a letter, he said he did not deserve the "awful portrait" published by the editor.
