Patrick Bruel’s lawyers filed a complaint on Wednesday, notably for violation of the secrecy of the investigation, denouncing the publication by several media, including “Paris Match”, of extracts from his hearing by investigators, they told AFP on Thursday.
My Fanny Colin, Céline Lasek and Christophe Ingrain, whose plan to file a complaint had been announced on BFMTV, denounce in particular in a press release sent to AFP comments “falsely attributed by Paris Match”, in its September 3 edition, to their client, accused by many women of sexual violence.
The 67-year-old singer, who gave up his tour and maintains his innocence, is indicted in four cases, notably for rape and attempted rape.
Indicted in four cases
“It is firmly denied that Mr Bruel made the remarks which were falsely attributed to him by Paris Match, in particular the sentence: ‘It is not 30 mourners who are going to screw up my career’”, underline his advice, indignant against violations which “seriously and irremediably undermine the sincerity and serenity of the procedure”.
In an article devoted to the “real reasons” for the cancellation of the singer’s tour, the weekly explains that the singer would have made this confidence to relatives, mid-May, two months after the publication of a Mediapart investigation, based on the testimony of eight women covering a period from 1991 to 2019.
At this stage, Patrick Bruel was indicted in four cases, notably for rape and attempted rape, and was placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness in four cases.
A cancellation that has become “an obligation”
On September 2, he canceled the tour that he was supposed to start at the beginning of October. For several weeks, political leaders, elected officials and feminist associations have been calling on the singer to give up performing on stage, while dozens of women are now accusing him of sexual assault.
A cancellation that became “an obligation” and which was a “relief”, confided, Friday, in an interview with AFP, Karine Viseur, former Belgian press officer who accuses Patrick Bruel of an attempted rape in 2010, in Brussels, facts for which he is indicted.
Placed in police custody and indicted at the beginning of June, the singer had not been imprisoned and was subject to a judicial review which did not prohibit him from performing on stage. In mid-September, the courts must rule on the conditions of this judicial review. A judge had relaxed it at the singer’s request to authorize him to leave French territory, a decision which the prosecution appealed.
