She was punched, scratched in the face and then her hair was violently pulled. Tuesday evening, around 8:30 p.m., Christelle Meheut, the mayor of the town of 200 inhabitants of Chantepérier, in Isère, was violently attacked by a 50-year-old woman as she left the municipal council, said the Grenoble prosecutor, confirming information from the daily. The Dauphine Libere.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the resident would have attacked the elected official about a conflict related to a road problem.
A complaint filed and the suspect tried on August 4
A complaint was filed by the victim on Wednesday morning and the suspect placed in police custody. At the end of it, the fifty-year-old was referred to the Grenoble prosecutor’s office on Wednesday. The public prosecutor of Grenoble, Eric Vaillant, clarified that she will be tried on August 4 for violence with ITT (temporary incapacity for work) of less than eight days on a person responsible for a public service mission.
Pending her trial, she was placed under judicial control, with a ban on contact with the mayor and a ban on going to the town hall, in accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution.
A plan of five million to “strengthen the protection of elected officials”
On July 7, the Minister in charge of Territorial Communities Dominique Faure detailed a plan of five million euros aimed at strengthening the protection of elected officials, without however managing to convince them. Among the measures announced, the creation of 3,400 referents “attacks on elected officials” in police stations and gendarmeries, as well as the strengthening of the “alarm-elected” system or even legal and psychological protection and a single number made available to elected officials.
This plan was presented shortly after the arson of the home of the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, in Loire-Atlantique.