French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, targeted by several complaints from women for sexual violence, was indicted and emerged free under judicial supervision from the Nanterre court on Wednesday evening, escaping the pre-trial detention that the prosecution had requested, the public prosecutor said in a press release.
The 67-year-old artist is indicted in four cases: a rape in the Paris region in 2008, an attempted rape in 2010 in Brussels, a case of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the south of France in 2019 and a sexual harassment case in Ajaccio, Corsica, in 2019.
He is placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness in four other cases, including a rape in Brittany in 2012, a rape in the south of France in 2015, an attempted rape in 2010 and 2011 in the Paris region and sexual harassment in 2019 in Nyon in Switzerland.
For a last case – a rape in Grenoble, in the south-east of France, in 2000 – the statute of limitations was noted.
Among the obligations of judicial control, Mr. Bruel is prohibited from leaving French territory, from coming into contact with the victims and their families or from going to their homes and from attending a massage parlor, the prosecution said.
The artist must also provide proof of psychological care and provide a deposit of 500,000 euros.
The investigating judges who heard him at the end of the day had placed him under judicial supervision, but the prosecution had contacted the judge of freedoms and detention in order to request placement in pre-trial detention, a recommendation not followed.
Working with justice
The artist spent 48 hours in police custody, questioned by investigators from the Parisian judicial police.
His lawyers explained on Monday that the singer had “for several weeks made it known that he was available to the courts, to finally be able to respond within the framework of the legal procedure, before the competent authority”. They did not react on Wednesday.
“We will be able to work with the justice system,” Me Myriam Guedj-Benayoun, who defends two women accusing Patrick Bruel of sexual violence in Brussels and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in Vaucluse, told AFP.
“This is a real first legal victory for the victims. I obviously have a special thought for Daniela Elstner, who was the first in this new procedure to have courageously opened the way and thanks to whom this procedure is here,” reacted her lawyer, Me Jade Dousselin.
According to the French investigative newspaper Mediapart, which revealed this affair on March 18, Daniela Elstner, general director of Unifrance, accuses Patrick Bruel of having sexually assaulted her and of having attempted to rape her in November 1997 during the French Film Festival in Acapulco (Mexico). She was then 26 years old.
Severity
The prosecution “took the measure of the seriousness and the multitude of facts and a possible risk of renewal and pressure on the victims or witnesses”, rejoiced Me Iris Biehler, lawyer for a woman accusing the singer of sexual assault in Perpignan in 2019 and another denouncing an attempted rape in Neuilly in 2019, evoking “a strong signal from the prosecution”.
This awareness, however, comes late for Me Carine Durrieu Diebolt, who defends one of the plaintiffs. “In a case that is potentially very high-profile (…), how many women do you need to accuse a celebrity, to pursue legal proceedings?” she asked on the French channel BFMTV.
During the artist’s custody, three new complaints for rape and attempted rape were also announced by Messrs Guedj-Benayoun and Corinne Herrmann.
Under pressure, Patrick Bruel announced at the end of May the cancellation of most of his next tour in France and abroad, which was to begin in mid-June in Paris before taking him to festivals.
Regarding festivals, a dozen concerts were affected by the cancellations: one in Switzerland, one in Belgium and the others in France, according to the dates listed on the artist’s official website.
The Swiss organizers of a festival in Friborg had already excluded him from their event a few days earlier. Just like the organizers of three concerts in Quebec planned for December.
