French Civil Service Minister accused of sexual abuse

Paris, May 25: A French government minister have been charged of sexual harassment by two french ladies, apparently encouraged to speak up after the recent arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in sex crime charges.

The two french ladies filed legal complaints against Civil Service Minister, George Tron.

Gilbert Collard, lawyer for the women, had submitted the complaints against the minister to a public prosecutor, confirming the accusation as a sexual harassment.

The women are the former employees at the town hall of Draveil, a city just south of Paris where Tron is the mayor.

Tron's lawyer, Olivier Schnerb, dismissed the complaints and said he had been instructed to respond by filing a slander complaint in return.

Defending himself, Tron told that he had informed Prime Minister Francois Fillon about the matter, adding that the plaintiffs were women who had been dismissed from their town hall posts.

One of the victimised women confessed that the rape-attempt accusation on the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn encouraged her to break the silence and speak the hidden truth.

"When I see that a little chambermaid is capable of taking on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I tell myself I do not have the right to stay silent," the woman said.

Strauss-Kahn's arrest on the charges of attempting rape on a Sofitel hotel maid has triggered soul-searching and debate in France about tolerance of sexual harassment and media reluctance to pursue and highlight such issues more aggressively.

OneIndia News