Since his appointment to the Ministry of the Interior, accusations of rape hung over Gerald Darmanin.
On June 9, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered the resumption of investigations into the charges of rape brought against the minister.
But according to sources familiar with the matter, the judge in charge of the investigation pronounced the end of the investigations in early September without indicting the minister.
It thus directs the case towards a dismissal, we learned Monday from two sources close to the case, confirming information from Mediapart.
It is now up to the Paris prosecutor's office, which did not wish to confirm, to take its requisitions before the final decision of the investigating judge.
The complainant, Sophie Patterson, 49, now has two weeks to comment, says Mediapart.
Since its first complaint in 2017, the case has gone through lengthy procedural wrangles.
Read alsoRape accusations: what really contains the Darmanin file
The facts denounced date back to March 17, 2009. Sophie Patterson-Spatz, 36 years old at the time, UMP sympathizer and former call girl, then requested a meeting with Darmanin, at the time municipal councilor in Tourcoing.
She wants him to intervene on her behalf to have his conviction for "blackmail and malicious calls" against a former boyfriend erased from his criminal record.
And accuses him, since, of having exerted on her "moral pressure" by demanding a sexual intercourse in exchange for his help.
After his complaint, a preliminary investigation was opened by the Paris prosecutor's office in July 2017 and then quickly closed.
A few months later, Sophie Patterson-Spatz had filed a new complaint with the constitution of civil party, ended by a dismissal for the benefit of Gérald Darmanin in August 2018.
According to a judicial source, the decision to relaunch the investigation was based as much on the substance as on the form: the investigating judge did not conduct any investigative action, hearings, or confrontation. He was therefore requested to relaunch the investigations.
