Legal complaint revives incest and rape scandal shaking French intellectual elite

More than 32 years passed until “Víctor”, his literary name, decided to take the step he never could have before: report incest to political scientist and lawyer Olivier Duhamel, his father-in-law and one of the respected intellectuals of the Science Po institute and on May 68 in Paris.

“Victor”, the twin brother of lawyer and writer Camille Kouchner, is in fact Antoine, a 45-year-old man with a family and the son of Bernard Kouchner, founder of Médecins sans frontières and former chancellor of France.

During all this time and since 1988, he has resisted denouncing this unpronounceable word: incest, which divides his family and friends, leads to the suicide of his mother and his aunt Marie France, actress. An open secret that no one has dared to bring to justice.

It was Camille Kouchner, lawyer, his twin, who decided to break with this omertá in “La Casa Grande”, a heartbreaking autobiographical novel. According to her, Victor was sexually assaulted and raped as a teenager, for at least two and a half years, by her stepfather, political scientist and constitutional expert Olivier Duhamel. The book has become a legal literary bomb.

Earthquake in the intellectual world

Duhamel has resigned from all his posts. The presidency of the National Foundation for Political Science (FNSP), which supervises Sciences Po, has also left that of the influential club “Le Siècle” and left its broadcasts on LCI or Europe 1.

The languages ​​were unlocked. There were too many ministers, former heads of state, academics, friends of the intellectual and visiting the family mansion facing the sea, in Savary, where the events were taking place. The “left” caviar, the “progressive” bourgeois of the Left Bank.

“In our entourage, many were aware of the actions of Olivier Duhamel”, admitted Julian Kouchner, the eldest son of the former chancellor and brother of Victor.

The first complaint

Victor filed a complaint against Duhamel for the first time on Tuesday, his lawyer said in a statement.

<< In the context of the Duhamel case, the alleged victim informed, through her lawyer, Doctor Jacqueline Laffont, that she had lodged a complaint against her former father-in-law, Mr. Olivier Duhamel, after the 'opening of a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office, "his adviser said in a statement. The Paris prosecutor's office is trying to deal with the Duhamel case quickly.

Víctor was heard on January 21 by the police of the Brigade for the Protection of Minors (BPM), responsible for the investigation into “rape and sexual assault by a person having authority over a minor under 15”.

During this hearing, he repeated at length the facts revealed by his sister in “La Familia Grande”, published on January 7. In this 200-page autobiographical story, the publication of which “Victor” did not oppose, Camille Kouchner accuses Duhamel, the famous and influential political scientist, former MEP and media used to sexually assaulting his twin at the end of the years. 1980.

Son of the former minister Kouchner, the man, now in his forties, was brought up by his stepfather Olivier Duhamel, whom his mother, Evelyne Pisier, had remarried in a bourgeois intellectual milieu of the left and a post-68 libertine morality.

Prescribed case?

The renowned political scientist used to break into “Victor’s” room at night when he was 13, for at least two and a half years, to sexually abuse him. His mother Evelyne Pisier, Fidel Castro’s former lover, was an alcoholic. Duhamel was in charge of the boys, in their family summer residence. “Víctor” had announced that he was going to file a complaint against the political scientist and constitutional expert.

After spending so many years, it is likely that legally the case has prescribed. But since January 5, 2021, when the incest reported by his sister became known, the police seek to reconstruct the facts.

“Víctor” was questioned during a first procedure opened in 2011. But he then refused to file a complaint for these events. “The investigation was closed,” said the Paris prosecutor’s office Rémy Heitz in a January 5 press release, without giving the reasons for this decision.

The new investigation, opened with the publication of the book, aims to verify that the facts have been well established since 2003, to “shed light” on this case and “identify any other potential victim”, according to prosecutor Heitz. Contacted Tuesday by AFP, Frédérique Baulieu, Olivier Duhamel’s lawyer, refused to comment.

The problem is that Duhamel knows too well President Emmanuel Macron, the ministers and the intellectuals they all want to testify against him.

The police heard Camille Kouchner, his sister and author, recount the events. It is in his room that Victor took refuge after his rapes. It was he who didn’t want to be said his mother, who when she found out, decided to stay with Olivier, her husband, until she committed suicide and abandon their children, adrift.

Her actress sister Marie France committed suicide, apparently in her swimming pool, after a battle to protect the boys and demand that her own sister leave Duhamel. She was the one who told all of her close friends about incest. They abandoned her. No one wanted to get involved.

The government’s position

The case caused a real earthquake in France. A consciousness that touched even the highest peak of the state. “We are listening to you. We believe you,” Macron said on Saturday to victims of sexual violence in childhood, before detailing on social networks a series of measures to come.

Better supported psychotherapies, better support at school, changes in the penal code. Faced with the wave of testimonies and the outcry that Camille Kouchner’s book sparked, the executive unveiled the first measures expected by associations to better fight against crime and incest among children. Social media was full of cases detailing incest.

In addition, a socialist bill aimed specifically at suppressing incest will be on the menu of the National Assembly on February 18, while the issue has returned to public opinion with the Duhamel affair. The text of the deputy of Val-de-Marne, Isabelle Santiago was officially registered on Tuesday in the “niche” reserved for her political group, according to parliamentary sources.

Several people close to Duhamel, accused of having been aware of the events for several years, were splashed by the scandal. The prefect of Ile-de-France, Marc Guillaume, member of the board of the Club “Siècle” and former secretary general of the government, has left all the functions in which he worked with Olivier Duhamel.

Former Socialist Minister of Justice Elisabeth Guigou has stepped down from the presidency of the Commission on Incest and Childhood Sexual Violence. The Elysée has distanced itself from Olivier Duhamel, the famous political scientist, delighted with this presidential candidate, who “was neither on the left nor on the right”, went to the restaurant La Rotonde in Paris to celebrate his victory.

Paris, correspondent

CB