The former deputy mayor of Paris Christophe Girard, targeted by an investigation for "
rape
" closed without follow-up because of the limitation period, estimated Friday, December 11 that the case had been "
instrumentalized
" in order to harm him politically.
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"
I will know one day who exploited this affair against me, to bring me down, but I did not fall, I am alive
", he declared on BFM-TV.
He castigated a "
society of denunciation
" and "
ukases and small political montages
".
In an article published on August 16 by the American daily New York Times, Aniss Hmaïd testified to his meeting with Girard in Tunisia in the summer of 1989, when he was 15 years old, and then to have been drawn into an abusive relationship of nearly ten years which left him with "
lasting psychological wounds
".
The Paris prosecutor's office had opened on August 18 an investigation for "
rape by a person in authority
", before dismissing the procedure "
due to the acquisition of the prescription of public action
".
The ex-deputy had denounced allegations "
serious
" and "
unfounded
", contesting any sexual relationship with this man.
"
I have always condemned pedophilia,
" he said on BFM-TV.
A powerful figure in the cultural policy of the city of Paris, Christophe Girard had already been pushed at the end of July to resign from his post of deputy mayor because of his links with the writer accused of pedophilia Gabriel Matzneff.
According to him, the campaign of which he was the subject was a "
well organized political coup
."
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Gabriel Matzneff "is not a friend", defends Christophe Girard, the ex-deputy of Anne Hidalgo