Senator Joël Guerriau, suspected of having drugged MP Sandrine Josso in order to sexually assault her, was questioned on Tuesday, September 24, in particular about suspicious searches found on his phone, AFP learned on Wednesday, September 25 from sources close to the case. “Drugs and rape”, “effects of ecstasy GHB” (gamma-hydroxybutyrate, nicknamed “date rape drug”), “GHB next day effects”, “GHB point of sale”… The examination of Joël Guerriau’s phone revealed that the senator had searched Google for information about rape and drugs on October 9, a little over a month before the events reported by Sandrine Josso, according to elements of the investigation of which AFP has knowledge.
“Joël Guerriau reserves his explanations only for the courts,” reacted his lawyers Henri Carpentier and Marie Roumiantseva, without confirming the content of his questioning before the investigating judge. It was the first time that he had been questioned on the merits since his indictment on November 17, 2023. Joël Guerriau was questioned for several hours on this case which highlighted the scourge of chemical submission even in the highest echelons of elected politicians.
“A white bag in the hand”
The senator from Loire-Atlantique, placed under judicial supervision, had been suspended in the wake of his Horizons party and his parliamentary group. He met the president of the Senate on Wednesday. Initially, he hoped to return to the upper house but in a statement sent to AFP at the end of the day on Wednesday, he said he had decided to put himself “withdrawn from participation in parliamentary work” pour “preserve serenity” of the Senate.
To Gérard Larcher who asked him to resign, he indicated that he would not sit “no longer until further notice”, agreeing to “to withdraw from one’s duties” executive. Joël Guerriau held the position of Secretary of the Senate as well as that of vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee, functions from which he agreed to step down.
Heard in March, Sandrine Josso told the investigating judges that she had been invited to Joël Guerriau’s house to celebrate the re-election of her “political friend” who prompted her to “drink fast” and adopted a “strange behavior”, turning the light off and on several times. He explained to him in police custody that he had made a “magic trick”.
According to a police report from July, she had 388 ng/ml of ecstasy in her blood when she left Joël Guerriau’s house – a dose well above the so-called recreational amount. The analysis also showed a total absence of narcotics during the seven months preceding the evening of the events. Taking “kinds of dumps” In her heart, Sandrine Josso says she saw Joël Guerriau with “a white bag in the hand”. “Terrified”, She then ordered a taxi, without there being any physical contact with the senator.
During his police custody, Joël Guerriau had argued that personal ordeals, including the death of his cat and the illness of a relative, had prompted him to obtain a “euphoric” with another senator. “There may have been some at the bottom of the glass I served him,” he had advanced, evoking a “handling error” glasses of champagne.
Source: www.liberation.fr
