French court dismisses rape case against interior minister

NICE, France

A French court on Tuesday dismissed a rape case against the country's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, local media reported.

The lawsuit was filed by Sophie Spatz-Patterson alleging that Darmanin asked sexual favors from her in 2009, in exchange for intervening in a legal case, while he was working as a legal counsellor at the UMP political party, now known as Les Republicains.

An investigation was initiated in January 2018.

The Paris Prosecutor's Office dismissed the complaints a month later, but the Paris Court of Appeal reopened the investigation in June 2020.

This July, the judge decided that "the complainant deliberately chose to have sexual relations with him (Darmanin), in order to get her criminal case tried again."

Darmanin admitted to having sexual relations with her but denied the accusations of rape.

* Writing by Nur Asena Erturk in Ankara