The head of a fringe anti-European Union party, former French presidential candidate François Asselineau, has been charged* over claims of sexual assault and harassment, a judiciary source said Friday, reports RTL.
Asselineau, 63, who fronts the Popular Republican Union (UPR) which has campaigned for France to leave the EU and NATO alliance, was arrested this week over the case that could bury his hopes of another stab at the presidency in 2022.
In his first run for the top job in 2017 he won just 0.92 percent of the vote.
Asselineau has been under investigation for sexual assault and harassment, both sexual and non-sexual, since May 2020, the Paris prosecutor's office told AFP.
Two former UPR employees filed complaints against Asselineau, who has dismissed the allegations as "slander".
Read more of this report from RTL.
*Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mis en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being charged. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.