German accuses French ex-president of sexual assault

A German journalist came forward on Thursday regarding a sexual assault incident involving the 94-year-old French former-President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

Ann-Kathrin Stracke, a reporter for German public broadcaster WDR, told various media outlets that she filed a legal complaint with Paris prosecutors accusing the former French leader of repeatedly grabbing her after an interview in December 2018. 

WDR reported on Wednesday that it investigated the incident and sent a protest letter to Giscard d'Estaing last year saying, "We cannot tolerate our employees being confronted with such situations."

"I've thought about going public with it for a long time," the 37-year-old reporter told the German news agency DPA. She added the situation was "extremely degrading, extremely belittling."

Stracke told the AFP news agency that she asked for a picture with Giscard d'Estaing, France's president from 1974 to 1981, after the interview.

"I was standing to his left and while taking the photo he put his hand on my left waist before sliding it to my backside where it stayed," Stracke told AFP.

She said she filed the legal complaint with prosecutors in Paris on March 10 with the backing of WDR. The prosecutors' office did not comment on the filing.

Giscard d'Estaing lawyer, Jean-Marc Fedida, told multiple news outlets that his client has no recollection of the incident or the interview. Fedida suggested in a statement to the Associated Press possible legal retaliation "against a particularly undignified and offensive media [attack]."

dv/sms (AFP, AP, dpa)

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