Lawyer Juan Branco, February 14, 2020 in Paris. – Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
Juan Branco wishes to be heard quickly. The 31-year-old lawyer, known for his anti-Macron pamphlet “Twilight” and for having been the lawyer of the Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski in the case of the dissemination in 2020 of a sexual video of Benjamin Griveaux, then candidate for mayor of Paris, is the subject of an investigation to verify rape allegations made by a young woman against him.
“He wants to be able to be heard as quickly as possible by the investigators in order to record his version of this story,” said Me Yassine Bouzrou, his lawyer, interviewed on Saturday by The Parisian. Already Friday afternoon, on his Facebook account, Juan Branco published a long message in which he gives his version of the facts.
“A consensual sexual relationship”, for Juan Branco
The 20-year-old woman and Juan Branco met for the first time on Tuesday afternoon in the Luxembourg Gardens after discussions on the social network Instagram.
After a stroll in Paris, the couple would have gone to the home of the lawyer. They would have watched a movie before having consensual sex, according to the version of Juan Branco he gives on his Facebook page. “In the morning, when I was supposed to attend a meeting, I got up. She did it soon after, and just before my call started, she kissed me, on the face, on the lips, smiled at me, and left, says Juan Branco. She had forgotten her glasses, her charger that didn’t work. She wrote to me and I told her that she could pick them up whenever she wanted. “
The handrail removed on Monday?
However, the next day, the complainant went to the police station of the 14th arrondissement of Paris and deposited a handrail. Very quickly, a preliminary investigation for “rape” was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office and entrusted to the first DPJ (Judicial Police Division).
In the evening, according to the version delivered by Juan Branco, the young woman warns him of this approach while she returned to his home to retrieve a pair of glasses and a phone charger. The lawyer transmitted to the press, Friday afternoon, a Facebook message attributed to the complainant, not immediately verifiable, which would tell him that she intended to “withdraw” her handrail “Monday”.