The family of Guillaume Tran-Tranh, a student who committed suicide after accusing a Parisian elected official of rape in early 2021 and whose testimony had sparked a #MeTooGay movement, has filed a new complaint for an investigating judge to resume the investigation, AFP learned Thursday from his lawyers.
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his father “has taken note of the preliminary investigation carried out following his complaint against X” targeting the PCF elected to the Council of Paris Maxime Cochard and his companion, also PCF, Victor Laby, indicated Me Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon and Florian Borg in a press release to AFP. The elected official disputed these accusations, which then sparked hundreds of other messages about sexual violence in gay circles.
Tracks “too quickly discarded if not ignored”
The student’s father “believes that certain leads were too quickly discarded if not ignored even though at the heart of the complaint, several elements obtained within the framework of the investigation would have deserved in-depth study and attention, the investigation having finally, obviously, suffered from certain biases and prejudices”continue the two councils.
“It therefore seemed necessary and legitimate to bring a civil action with the dean of the investigating judges of Paris”, they announce, which was done on Wednesday. The complaint is for “willful violence resulting in death without the intention of giving it”said Me Tuaillon-Hibon.
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The two lawyers ask any potential witness to come forward “preferably directly with the investigating judge” who should be appointed. “Guillaume’s family will not comment further at this stage and his father hopes that justice can do its job in the best possible conditions”they point out.
Shortly after his accusations made on Twitter on January 21, 2021, Guillaume Tran-Tranh, 20, was found dead, hanged in his room on the Nanterre campus (Hauts-de-Seine), on February 9, 2021. A first complaint had been filed on February 18 and an investigation opened shortly after, finally closed on May 3, 2022.
After Guillaume’s accusations on Twitter, the Communist Party announced that it had asked Maxime Cochard and his companion “to withdraw from all their responsibilities of the PCF Paris”. The mediation body of the Communist Party had recommended the reinstatement of Maxime Cochard after the closing of the investigation. This is still not registered with the Council of Paris.