The activist came out of his silence on Tuesday to criticize LFI for not having allowed him to defend himself against the accusations and to demand “a fair and equitable procedure”.
The lawyers of journalist Taha Bouhafs denounce a procedure “outside the law”, carried out by the Committee for the Monitoring of Sexual and Sexist Violence (CVSS) of La France insoumise, which prevents him according to them from answering the accusations against him, in a press release transmitted Thursday, July 7 to AFP.
“Taha Bouhafs intends, through his counsel, to reaffirm his right to know the accusations against him in order to be able to respond to them, in the same way as any publicly accused citizen.“Write his three lawyers Mes William Bourdon, Raphaël Kempf and Vincent Brengarth.
Calls for “a fair and equitable procedure”
Candidate for the legislative elections in the Rhône, the journalist withdrew on May 10, invoking the “racism» of «unprecedented attacksagainst him led by the macronie, the right and part of the left. But LFI announced the next day that an internal investigation had been opened against it by the CVSS. Taha Bouhafs came out of his silence on Tuesday to criticize LFI for not having allowed him to defend himself against the accusations and to claim “a fair and equitable procedurein a six-page open letter posted on social media.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party defended itself by explaining that it could not send him “the information sent to the cell“, nor organize a confrontation, in the name of “the complainants’ desire for anonymity“. But “in respect of the contradictory, he may be heard by our authorities“, adds the movement, which continues”(his) work of persuasion with the plaintiffs so that they take legal action“. “This situation is not tolerable because it seriously disregards the rights of Taha Bouhafs“, consider his lawyers.
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“Everyone must measure the risk of a “political justice” which would be based on “clues” of which only the addressees would know the content, which would be exercised without a perfectly defined procedure, in defiance of the adversarial principle and without access to factual elements“, they add. “The procedure followed against Taha Bouhafs is “outside the law”which prevented him from being able to respond to the charges against him», estimate Mes Bourdon, Kempf and Brengarth. The three lawyers question “more generally the need to review the internal procedures of certain political formations or associative structures, to avoid, in the name of the legitimate fight against sexual violence, that trials are conducted unilaterally in an interpersonal environment that cannot guarantee neutrality and impartiality“.
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