The lawyer Juan Branco was indicted on Tuesday for rape by a Parisian investigating judge after the accusation of a woman at the end of April. This woman, 20 years old at the time of the facts, had deposited a handrail at the police station of the XIVth arrondissement of Paris on April 29, 2021 after her meeting with Juan Branco following exchanges on Instagram.
Placed in police custody a month later, the lawyer had mentioned a consensual relationship. Indicted, the media lawyer close to France Insoumise and yellow vests was placed under judicial supervision, he was also prohibited from communicating with the complainant.
At the time, Juan Branco defended himself in a message posted on Facebook. He described his meeting with the young woman:
According to the story given by Juan Branco, the young woman left in the morning. “She kissed me, on the face, on the lips, smiled at me, and left”, he writes. She then came back in the evening to pick up some things. “She was cold and confused. She told me it had gone too fast, that it had never happened to her. She then told me that she had gone to the police the next day. That she had dropped off a handrail, because two friends she had spoken to had suggested it to her“, he specifies.
Close to France Insoumise, Juan Branco, 31, is the lawyer for Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski in the Benjamin Griveaux sextape case. He also defends Christophe Dettinger, the boxer filmed hitting two gendarmes during act 8 of the “yellow vests”, or even the yellow vest Maxime Nicolle, alias Fly Rider.
