The prosecutor’s office filed an appeal on Monday after lawyer Alex Ursulet was acquitted by the Paris criminal court, which tried him for the rape of an intern at his office in January 2018. “We can only express our incomprehension in the face of what we think is intransigence,” reacted his lawyers, Fanny Colin, Luc Brossolet and Edouard Martial.
“This is a very good thing. My client’s determination to make the truth heard is getting stronger,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Thibault Laforcade. Paris lawyer figure Alex Ursulet, 68, was acquitted on Saturday evening due to doubts. In his request, Attorney General Philippe Courroye asked for a thirteen year prison sentence.
The lawyer continued to proclaim his innocence of the facts alleged against him, behind the closed doors of his office on the afternoon of January 30, 2018.
If the court considers that there was indeed an “act of sexual penetration”, the court “has doubts about the criminal intent” of Alex Ursulet: the messages sent to the then 25-year-old young woman, based on the facts and the next day, stated “that he was not aware that he had committed a disgraceful act”. However, to be convicted under French criminal law, the alleged perpetrator must have a conscious desire to commit a crime or misdemeanor.
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“Unfortunate dominant-dominant relationship” for the defense
To punish, “you need certainty commensurate” with the sentence requested, Mr. Colin argued. But here, “there is a more reasonable doubt” about guilt, he predicted.
Although his client always denied any sexual relationship with his intern, Brossolet managed to change his defense strategy, describing an “unfortunate dominant-dominant relationship,” which the complainant initially entered into of her own accord, as evidenced by the exchange of messages.
“There was play” that was sexual in nature, “like it or not,” according to attorney Alex Ursulet. Of course, he “did not leave unscathed” the complainant, who chose to escape by leaving the office the day after the incident. But when he committed to it, according to him, it was done on a consensual basis. And in this context, Mr. Brossolet continued his plea, there was nothing to show Alex Ursulet that this was no longer the case at the time of the incident.
Arguments heard by a criminal court. After the acquittal, Me Laforcade condemned the “cynical decision” and requested an appeal from the public prosecutor’s office.
