The former all-powerful director of the Institut Montaigne dismissed in court. Laurent Bigorgne was sentenced Thursday in Paris to a suspended twelve-month prison sentence and a fine of 2,000 euros for having drugged his former sister-in-law and collaborator without his knowledge during a party last February. The criminal court considered that this close friend of Emmanuel Macron had administered this drug “in order to commit rape or sexual assault against him”, thus requalifying the facts.
The sentence pronounced is however below the requisitions of the prosecution, which had requested on November 10 eighteen months of suspended imprisonment and an obligation of care, without retaining the sexual intention. Laurent Bigorgne was absent from the deliberations, and his lawyer, Me Sébastien Schapira, announced that he would “immediately” appeal this “senseless, incoherent decision”.
MDMA in the drink
“It is a recognition of what happened and of the facts, and a complete recognition”, greeted his ex-sister-in-law, Sophie Conrad after the deliberation. She had filed a complaint on the night of February 22 to 23, after a dinner at the home of Laurent Bigorgne, who was her superior, but also her sister’s ex-husband. After half a glass of champagne, she had experienced symptoms of taking drugs and had managed to leave the scene to go to the hospital.
An expert then revealed that she had taken MDMA, a synthetic drug from the family of amphetamines also called ecstasy. Placed in police custody, Laurent Bigorgne quickly admitted having taken cocaine that evening and poured MDMA into Sophie Conrad’s glass, but always disputed a sexual intention. He resigned from the Institut Montaigne on February 27, after eleven years at its head. Since the start of the case, Sophie Conrad has regretted that “the sexual motive has not been recognized”. “Today, I no longer really have any doubt that his intention was, alas, sexual and to rape me,” said the civil party at the hearing.