It will indeed be his return. One year after the launch of an internal investigation for acts of sexual violence, following the report of two women to its committee in May 2022, La France Insoumise will close its investigation and reinstate activist and journalist Taha Bouhafs, according to BFMTV. An information confirmed Monday evening by the main interested party, who took the article of the channel on his Twitter account. "We welcome today this decision that we have been waiting for too long," his lawyers said in a statement. If the media echo of this case had still calmed down since last summer, one of the two accusers had finally withdrawn her testimony last March. Faced with this new situation, his lawyers had already asked that "the relentlessness stop". And that their client "who is not the subject of any legal proceedings can resume a more or less normal life.
»'Unprecedented attacks'
It should be remembered that these accusations marked the beginning of the legislative campaign of La France Insoumise. Faced with the growing controversy, Jean-Luc Mélenchon's party had to change its tune. Threatening to remove the investiture of Taha Bouhafs, LFI pretender to the deputation in the Rhône, the well-known militant of the anti-racist movement "had made the choice to renounce of himself the investiture (...) even before the end of the internal procedure." In a message published on his social networks, he had denounced the "racism" of "unprecedented attacks". "I underestimated the power of this system when it wants to crush you," he lamented.
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As for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who aspired at the time to become prime minister, he had castigated "a pack (which) was fierce against" Taha Bouhafs. "I blame myself for not having been able to comfort him as much as necessary," he regretted. In a letter posted in July 2022, the controversial activist said he had "never faced the said accusations." On this occasion, he had strongly challenged the deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis Clémentine Autain, accusing her of having collected the word of women against him. And to have then pushed him to give up being a candidate.
