The 58-year-old writer was interviewed at length at the Pau police station this Tuesday, December 12 as part of a preliminary investigation opened for rape.
Frédéric Beigbeder in the eye of the storm. The author of the famous satirical novel 99 Francs was summoned this Tuesday, December 12, 2023, in the morning, at around 9 a.m., to the Pau police station, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. He was placed in police custody, according to information from La République des Pyrénées and France Bleu, as part of a preliminary investigation opened for rape. Information since confirmed by the press release from Rodolphe Jarry, the public prosecutor of Pau. Tuesday evening, Frédéric Beigbeder’s police custody was lifted, according to information from BFMTV. But the investigation still had to continue “for the purposes of carrying out certain acts requested by Frédéric Beigbeder’s counsel”, further specified the prosecutor, also insisting on the principle of the “presumption of innocence” from which the writer must benefit. .
Concretely, “on July 23, 2023, a woman [presented herself] at the Pau police station in order to file a complaint against Frédéric Beigbeder for acts of rape,” indicates the press release from the public prosecutor. The facts date back to the summer of 2023 and took place at the Villa Navarre hotel, reports France Bleu, which also specifies that the writer was in the past, from 2011 to 2015, a shareholder of this renowned establishment.
If the prosecutor “does not intend, as it stands, to provide further details on the facts considered” in order to “preserve future investigations”, Le Parisien reveals knowing, from a police source, that the complainant, who would be a Paloise, accuses Frédéric Beigbeder of unauthorized digital penetration. While the two protagonists would have maintained a relationship “for several months”, the events would have taken place in the bed of a hotel room where Frédéric Beigbeder and the complainant were. After having previously had a first sexual relationship which was consensual, a second non-consensual one would have taken place during that same night. For his part, the writer “disputes the facts with which he is accused”, said the public prosecutor in his press release, while Frédéric Beigbeder’s lawyer, Me Marie Dosé, evokes a strong contestation of these “fanciful accusations”. And the writer’s advice is to specify that his client is “perfectly confident in the outcome of the procedure”.
