Paris (AFP) – French investigating magistrates have dismissed charges against two elite officers who were sensationally accused of raping a Canadian tourist at Paris police headquarters in 2014, judicial sources said Tuesday.
The 34-year-old woman claimed she was gang-raped by two policemen she met in a pub across the Seine river from the headquarters of the criminal police department in the French capital.
The Paris prosecutor’s office had recommended that the two men face trial and could yet appeal the decision by the magistrates to dismiss the case.
The affair cast a cloud over the accused officers’ elite BRI unit, which fights gang crime.
The woman said that after a night of heavy drinking with the accused and other officers, she agreed to follow them back to their workplace, known as “36 quai des Orfevres” after its address.
She left the building later in shock and reported a rape.
One policeman admitted to having sex with her but insisted it was consensual. The other denied having intercourse with her.
There was further embarrassment for the “36” later that year when 52 kilos of seized cocaine, with an estimated street value of two million euros ($2.2 million) vanished from the building.
Sebastien Schapira, a lawyer for one of the two accused, hailed the decision as “just”, claiming the woman’s testimony was incoherent and contained “untruths”.
The woman’s lawyer has yet to react.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.