In November 2018, in Bobigny, the public prosecutor requested six years in prison against Georges Tron and four against Brigitte Gruel for “rape” and “sexual assault” on two former employees of the town hall of Draveil, Éva Loubrieu and Virginie Ettel.
This Tuesday, at the Ile de la Cité courthouse, the attorney general this time demanded five years in prison, including three suspended sentences, against the mayor LR of Draveil and two years suspended prison sentence. against his former Culture Assistant.
To read also: Two years after his acquittal, Georges Tron retried for "rapes"
Calling in his indictment to distinguish morality and politics from law, the Advocate General recalled the
“related”
definitions
of rape and sexual assault in the penal code.
“The only thing that differentiates them is the exact nature of the material act performed.
Rape is any act of sexual penetration, of any kind, carried out by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.
Sexual assault is the same thing except for an act of penetration. ”
In the eyes of the representative of the public prosecutor, in this Tron-Gruel affair,
"we are not in the field of violence, surprise, threats ... We are in that of coercion and the forms that can take. constraint.
The hold is one of them. "
Monday, during their pleadings, the civil party lawyers had also considered that the influence was
"the heart of the case"
.
To read also: Trial Tron: "The heart of this file, it is the grip", plead the lawyers of the plaintiffs
The consent of Eva Loubrieu and Virginie Ettel was
"forced, constrained, vitiated,"
said the magistrate, considering that Georges Tron and Brigitte Gruel were aware of going against the
"free consent"
of the two women.
To support his point, he evoked
"the asymmetrical nature of the relationship"
between the accused and the complainants, as well as
"the maneuvers, prior to complaints, implemented
[by the accused]
to protect themselves"
- the famous green pocket gathering documents on the complainants.
The defendants deny the facts
Believing that Georges Tron and Brigitte Gruel have indeed committed sexual assaults on Éva Loubrieu and Virginie Ettel, the Advocate General however considered that Brigitte Gruel was "
not guilty of the acts of rape in a meeting, nor of complicity in rape in a meeting ",
Georges Tron having according to him"
need neither help nor assistance to achieve his ends "
.
The representative of the public prosecutor demanded two years of suspended prison against the sexagenarian.
If the court decides to follow this reasoning,
“it is not of rapes in assembly that must be found guilty Georges Tron, but of simple rapes.
The first are punished by twenty years of imprisonment, the second by fifteen years, ”
added the magistrate before requesting five years in prison, three of which are suspended, against the politician.
After a lunch break, the hearing will continue this afternoon with the pleadings of the defense lawyers, Me Antoine Vey and Me Solange Doumic for Georges Tron, Me Frank Natali for Brigitte Gruel.
On Wednesday, the Assize Court will hear the last words of the defendants, who have been claiming their
"innocence"
for ten years.
It will then withdraw to deliberate and then deliver its verdict.
To read also: Trial for "rapes": the ten hours of denials of Georges Tron
At first instance, in November 2018, the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis acquitted the two suspects of the facts with which they were accused.
In their motivation sheet, the judges and jurors had ruled that if there was, in their opinion, a
"hyper sexualized atmosphere"
at the town hall of Draveil,
"the proof of a situation of constraint had not been reported"
.