Justice remains inflexible for Jean-Luc Lahaye: the Paris Court of Appeal refused, Thursday October 10, 2024, to drop the charges against the singer for one of the two young women who accuse him of rape and sexual assault when they were minors, we learned from a judicial source.
The defense of the star singer of the 1980s had nevertheless seized the investigating chamber of the court of appeal after the refusal of the investigating judge to place him under the more favorable status of assisted witness for the facts denounced by one of the two plaintiffs.
Refusal of placement under the status of assisted witness
This request was based in particular on inconsistencies noted in his accusations, two sources close to the case told AFP during the hearing on June 27. But “the investigating chamber confirmed the refusal of placement under the status of assisted witness taken by the investigating judge,” indicated the judicial source.
“We expect the investigating judge to stand at an equal distance between the complainant and the accused,” reacted to AFP the two lawyers of the former star singer of the 1980s, Maîtres Sophie Obadia and Bertrand Burman.
“This complainant has not communicated all of the information requested from her for months and months. The numerous testimonies of women in favor of Jean-Luc Lahaye are never taken into account,” they regretted, adding that “this popular singer (should) be able to practice his profession.”
Facts about ten years old
“My client is relieved by this decision and hopes that the investigation will soon be completed,” Maître Nathalie Bucquet, lawyer for the young woman, told AFP.
Jean-Luc Lahaye, now aged 71, was indicted on November 5, 2021 in Paris for, in particular, “rape and sexual assault of minors over 15 years old”. Two young women, born in 1998 and 2000, accuse him of sexual violence when they were minors. The alleged facts, which he disputes, began in 2013.
Our “Jean-Luc Lahaye” file
At the end of March 2024, his lawyers obtained before the investigating chamber the cancellation for formal defects of an expert report on the influence that the former star could have exercised over the two young girls.
