The lawyers of journalist Taha Bouhafs denounce a procedure "outside the law", carried out by the Committee for the Monitoring of Sexual and Sexist Violence (CVSS) of La France insoumise, which prevents him according to them from answering the accusations against him, in a press release transmitted Thursday, July 7 to AFP.
"
Taha Bouhafs intends, through his advice, to reaffirm his right to know the accusations against him in order to be able to respond to them, in the same way as any publicly accused citizen
", write his three lawyers Mes William Bourdon, Raphaël Kempf and Vincent Brengarth.
Calls for "a fair and equitable procedure"
Candidate for the legislative elections in the Rhône, the journalist withdrew on May 10, citing the “
racism
” of “
unprecedented attacks
” against him carried out by the macronie, the right and part of the left.
But LFI announced the next day that an internal investigation had been opened against it by the CVSS.
Taha Bouhafs broke his silence on Tuesday to criticize LFI for not having allowed him to defend himself against the accusations and to demand "
a fair and equitable procedure
" in a six-page open letter published on social networks.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's party defended itself by explaining that it could not send him "
the information sent to the cell
", nor organize a confrontation, in the name of "
the complainants' desire for anonymity
".
But "
in respect of the contradictory, it can be heard by our authorities
", adds the movement, which continues "
(its) work of conviction with the complainants so that they take legal action
".
"
This situation is not tolerable because it seriously disregards the rights of Taha Bouhafs
", consider his lawyers.
Read alsoMathilde Panot (LFI) assures “not to have made up the accusations of sexual violence” targeting Taha Bouhafs
"
Everyone must measure the risk of
'
political justice
'
which would be based on
'
indexes
' of
which only the addressees would know the content, which would be exercised without a perfectly defined procedure, in defiance of the adversarial principle and without access to factual elements
" , they add.
"
The procedure followed against Taha Bouhafs is
'
outside the law
'
, which prevented him from being able to respond to the accusations against him
", consider Mes Bourdon, Kempf and Brengarth.
The three lawyers question “
more generally the need to review the internal procedures of certain political formations or associative structures, to avoid, in the name of the legitimate fight against sexual violence, that trials are conducted unilaterally in an interpersonal environment that cannot guarantee neutrality and impartiality
”.
