France investigates ex-president for sexual assault
May 11, 2020
French prosecutors announced on Monday that they had opened an investigation into sexual assault allegations made against former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
A criminal complaint was filed by German journalist Ann-Kathrin Stracke of Germany's public broadcaster WDR.
"I decided to tell my story because I think that people should know that a French former president harassed me sexually after an interview," Stracke told Agence France-Presse.
'Very degrading'
The 37-year-old journalist accused d'Estaing of groping her backside three times while taking a photograph after she interviewed the former president in 2018, describing it as a "very degrading" situation.
"I was standing to this left, and while taking the photo, he put his hand on my left waist before sliding it to my backside where it stayed," she said. "I tried to push him away but I didn't manage to."
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She said a cameraman man intervened by creating a distraction and then putting a chair between them.
WDR backs claims
Following the announcement, Stracke said she is "at the disposal of the French authorities in the context of this investigation."
Germany's WDR supported Stracke's complaint, saying it conducted its own investigation following the incident.
"WDR accompanies and backs Ann-Kathrin Stracke since the incident was known, as well as when she decided to file a complaint," said a spokeswoman for the German broadcaster.
ls/rc (AFP, AP)