Patrick Bruel: complaint filed by his lawyers for violation of the secrecy of the investigation

Patrick Bruel's lawyers filed a complaint on Wednesday, in particular for violation of the confidentiality of the investigation, denouncing the publication by several media including Paris Match of extracts from his hearing by investigators, they told AFP on Thursday.

My Fanny Colin, Céline Lasek and Christophe Ingrain, whose plan to file a complaint had been announced on BFMTV, denounce in particular in a press release sent to AFP comments "falsely attributed by Paris Match", in its September 3 edition, to their client, accused by many women of sexual violence. The 67-year-old singer, who gave up his tour and maintains his innocence, is indicted in four cases, notably for rape and attempted rape.

“It is firmly denied that Mr. Bruel made the remarks which were falsely attributed to him by Paris Match, in particular the sentence: it is not 30 mourners who are going to ruin my career”, underline his counsel, indignant against violations which “cause serious and irremediable damage to the sincerity and serenity of the procedure”.

Indicted in four cases

In an article devoted to the “real reasons” for the cancellation of the singer's tour, the weekly explains that the singer would have made this confidence to relatives, mid-May, two months after the publication of a Mediapart investigation, based on the testimony of eight women covering a period going from 1991 to 2019. At this stage, Patrick Bruel was indicted in four cases, notably for rape and attempted rape, and was placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness in four cases.

On September 2, he canceled the tour that he was supposed to start at the beginning of October. For several weeks, political leaders, elected officials and feminist associations have been calling on the singer to give up performing on stage while dozens of women are now accusing him of sexual assault. A cancellation that became “an obligation” and which was a “relief,” Karine Viseur, a former Belgian press secretary who accuses Patrick Bruel of attempted rape in 2010 in Brussels, confided in an interview with AFP on Friday, facts for which he is indicted.

Placed in police custody and indicted at the beginning of June, the singer had not been imprisoned and was subject to a judicial review which did not prohibit him from performing on stage. In mid-September, the courts must rule on the conditions of this judicial review. A judge had relaxed it at the singer's request to authorize him to leave French territory, a decision which the prosecution appealed.