A French senator was in custody Friday on suspicion of drugging an MP with a view to assaulting her, prosecutors and sources familiar with the case told AFP.
Joel Guerriau, a centrist senator from western France, was being held for "administering to a person without their knowledge a substance likely to diminish their judgement or self-control to commit a rape or sexual assault," prosecutors said on Thursday.
While the prosecutors named the victim as "a woman, who filed a complaint", several sources familiar with the case told AFP she was an MP in the lower house National Assembly.
She allegedly felt strange after accepting a drink on Tuesday night at the 66-year-old senator's Paris home. The Senate is the upper house of the French parliament.
Prosecutors said the two were not in an intimate relationship.
Tests revealed that she had ecstasy in her system, investigators added, prompting her to file the criminal complaint.
Guerriau was arrested and held in custody under caught-in-the-act rules allowing police to override his parliamentary immunity, prosecutors said.
Broadcaster RMC, which first reported the story, said that police had searched his office and home, where prosecutors confirmed they found ecstasy.
Far from indecent'
Guerriau's lawyer, Remi-Pierre Drai, said the truth of the case was "very far from the indecent interpretation that could be deduced from reading the initial press reports".
He added that he was "outraged to see information from the investigation in the press".
"I'm amazed that the victim's name has not been leaked, unlike my client's," he added.
Originally a banker, Guerriau has been a member of the Senate since 2011 and is deputy head of its foreign and military affairs committee.
Environment minister Christophe Bechu, a leading figure in the Horizons party of which Guerriau is a member, on Friday told broadcaster France Inter that "of course he won't be able to stay if there is the slightest doubt" about his guilt.
Party chiefs would hold a meeting early Saturday "where we'll have the opportunity to discuss this situation," he added.
Guerriau "will have to face the consequences if the least of this is true," Bechu said.
Horizons is led by former prime minister Edouard Philippe, now mayor of northern city Le Havre and one of France's most popular politicians since leaving office.
The party is allied with -- but not part of -- the ruling Renaissance party of President Emmanuel Macron.
Philippe is widely tipped to run in 2027 to succeed Macron, who will be unable to stand for a third time due to term limits.
The former prime minister joined Guerriau on the campaign trail for senatorial elections earlier this year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
