“I thought I was going to die.” Invited on the set of C à vous on France 5, Monday November 20, MP Sandrine Josso, at the origin of the complaint against Senator Joël Guerriau, spoke for the very first time on the affair.
On the set of C à vous, Sandrine Josso gave a speech on Monday, November 20, 2023, at the start of the evening, which was “difficult” to say the least, even asking for the photo of senator Joël Guerriau to be removed, whom she accuses of having drugged her without her knowledge in mid-November, which was projected on the screens of the set of the France 5 show. Initially, the MP returned to the facts she denounced, pointing out in particular the suspicious behavior of the man who had been his friend for ten years. “I was in the living room, he was in the kitchen. He served me a glass of champagne and I found that the champagne didn’t taste the same as usual,” she said. explained, noting that he also found it “strange that he wanted [them] to toast so [she] would drink quickly.”
Saying she was in an abnormal state after drinking what had been served to her, Sandrine Josso continued: “I didn’t understand what was happening to me and so he insisted. He took my glass back, he returned to the kitchen to serve me another glass of champagne. […] There, I look, he was in the kitchen and he puts a white bag in a drawer under the work surface. And then, I understand.” So already “completely under the influence of drugs”, with trembling legs, Sandrine Josso claims to have grabbed her phone and called a taxi. “I said to myself: ‘Above all, don’t say anything, don’t show that you feel bad. You really need to get out quickly.'” Wishing today above all to denounce the scourge of chemical submission, which according to her is spreading in all classes of our society, the MP shared her feelings without taboo: “I thought I was going to die of a heart attack. I thought I was going to die, because I thought he was going to abuse me. In the elevator, I couldn’t stand up anymore.”
Indicted and placed on Friday, November 17 under judicial supervision for administering “to a person, without their knowledge, [of] a substance likely to impair their discernment or control of their actions”, and this, “in order to commit a rape or sexual assault”, as well as for possession and use of substances classified as narcotics, Senator Joël Guerriau is in turmoil. Monday, November 20, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, for his part, asked him to “withdraw from all his activities linked to his mandate as senator” and to “take his responsibilities”.
Joël Guerriau is accused of having drugged MoDem MP Sandrine Josso. And even if “the presumption of innocence applies”, assures the Senate press release published this Monday, “the president [of the upper house] invited him, by a letter dated November 20, 2023, to resign from his functions secretary of the Senate Office and vice-chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces, as well as to withdraw from all his activities related to his mandate as senator”. The press release highlights “the extreme seriousness of the facts alleged” against the senator and calls for the “principle of dignity which attaches to the exercise of the parliamentary mandate”.
On Saturday, November 18, the Horizons party, to which the senator belonged, announced that it would “immediately” suspend Joël Guerriau at the end of a political office. Members of Édouard Philippe’s party said they were “deeply shocked by the facts at the origin of the accusations”. “Horizons will never tolerate the slightest complacency regarding sexual and gender-based violence,” the members wrote in a statement. Furthermore, they indicate the launch of “a disciplinary procedure which could lead to definitive exclusion”, reports franceinfo.
The senator’s lawyer took the floor on Saturday, November 18. In an interview for France Bleu, Me Rémi-Pierre Drai assures that he “never wanted to administer to his friend, to his work colleague, a substance with the aim of committing rape or sexual assault”. “It was a handling error,” adds the lawyer. According to him, the politician acquired a substance, without knowing that it was ecstasy, and decided to consume it on Monday evening. “He had put the product in a glass of champagne and he finally decided to go out,” continues the lawyer, who indicates that the senator then put the glass away. He would have taken it out the next day to celebrate a victory with his colleague, without remembering that the ecstasy was in the glass.
“The presumption of innocence obviously no longer has any meaning for his political colleagues,” adds Rémi-Pierre Drai, while Joël Guerriau was suspended by his parliamentary group Les Indépendants and by his party Horizons, Saturday November 18. “He’s someone who has never taken drugs,” assures his lawyer. However, analyzes made it possible to detect the presence of several drugs in Joël Guerriau’s blood, with traces of amphetamines, opiates, cannabis, cocaine, methadone and MDMA, according to BFMTV. “In his blood, in his hair, in his urine, we found absolutely no trace of drugs,” denies the lawyer, who denounces “false information”.
Tuesday, November 14, MP Sandrine Josso was invited to the senator’s Parisian home. Sandrine Josso says that she has known Joël Guerriau for a long time. She would have initially wanted them to meet in a restaurant, but the senator would have suggested having dinner at his place. It was then that the complainant noticed a “strange behavior” from the senator, who prepared her drinks in the kitchen and who looked at her “insistently”. He reportedly said he wanted to “party” with her. She also noted that he allegedly turned up the intensity of a dimmer switch. After having a drink, she claims to have felt ill during the evening and went to the hospital shortly after. Samples confirmed the presence of ecstasy in his body, as indicated by the prosecution. A substance also found at the senator’s home during the search carried out by investigators after the latter was taken into custody. According to BFMTV, the woman declares that the senator would not have attempted any physical rapprochement with her during that evening. But she believes that if she had mentioned his physical discomfort, he would have offered to stay and abuse her.
Joël Guerriau was therefore placed under judicial supervision on Friday November 17. His “obligation to follow treatment and prohibition of contact with the victim”. The Paris prosecutor’s office indicated that the investigation was opened in flagrante delicacy, a procedure allowing the senator’s parliamentary immunity not to be lifted. Joël Guerriau has been elected to the High Assembly since 2011 and holds the position of secretary of the Senate and vice-president of the committee on foreign affairs, defense and armed forces. The elected official risks 5 years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros.