The Duhamel affair is no longer just literary, it is now judicial.
This Tuesday, the Paris prosecutor's office announced the opening of a preliminary investigation for "rape and sexual assault by a person having authority over a minor of 15 years and rape and sexual assault by person in authority" targeting Olivier Duhamel.
The famous law professor, columnist on LCI and host of a weekly show on Europe 1, was the subject of very serious charges of incest against his stepson in the late 1980s.
Heavy suspicions confirmed by several sources and that the person concerned has not denied.
Judicially, the case could be time-barred.
But this revelation risks having very serious consequences on his public life: as of Monday, Olivier Duhamel indicated that he was resigning from his post as president of the prestigious National Foundation of Political Sciences (FNSP).
The fall of this media man and influential, former socialist MEP (1997-2004), is underway.
Emails between the actress and her sister intrigue investigators
The explosion came from a book to be published this Thursday, "La Familia Grande" (Threshold), written by her daughter-in-law Camille Kouchner.
In this book, this 45-year-old lawyer, daughter of former minister Bernard Kouchner, recounts that at the end of the 1980s Olivier Duhamel repeatedly raped his twin brother "Victor" (the first name was modified) then adolescent.
In 1983, the charismatic scholar moved in with their mother, researcher Evelyne Pisier, and her three children.
Years later, with the agreement of her brother, Camille Kouchner unveils this intimate drama which several friends of the couple were aware of.
Justice does not discover these accusations either.
In 2011, the Paris prosecutor's office had already opened a preliminary investigation into these same facts.
The suspicions appeared during the investigations into the death of actress Marie-France Pisier, the sister of Evelyne Pisier, found dead in the swimming pool of her villa in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer (Var) on April 24, 2011 The investigation opened for "research of the causes of death" had concluded with a probable suicide but, during their research, the gendarmes had unearthed this family secret.
The victim refused to file a complaint
In her book, Camille Kouchner explains that it was the discovery of emails between the deceased and her sister that aroused the suspicions of investigators.
When Camille and "Victor" had revealed the facts to their mother around 2008 or 2009, the two sisters were opposed on how to react, Evelyne Pisier making the choice not to let go of her husband.
"No formal and direct link had however been established between this secrecy and suicide", specifies a judicial source.
At the time, "Victor" had been heard by investigators from the brigade for the protection of minors (BPM) but he had refused to file a complaint.
Olivier Duhamel had not been heard and the case had been dismissed.
According to a judicial source, the facts were anyway prescribed since the first law which extended the limitation periods had not yet passed (it dates from 2004).
This did not prevent the Paris prosecutor's office from reopening the case on Tuesday.
The BPM is again in charge of the file.
