A Paris investigating judge on Monday ordered the closure of a five-year rape investigation into French interior minister Gerald Darmanin, according to his lawyers, reports FRANCE 24.
"The justice system has said for the fourth time in five years that Mr Darmanin has not committed any punishable act," Mathias Chichportich and Pierre-Olivier Sur said.
A judicial source confirmed to AFP that the case against Darmanin, a right-wing stalwart of President Emmanuel Macron's government, had been dropped, although the decision can still be appealed.
The latest closing of a probe into Darmanin comes just one week after Macron sacked a junior minister, former conservative parliamentary chief Damien Abad, who had been accused of attempted rape.
Another junior minister still in office, former gynaecologist Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, is under investigation by prosecutors after several women accused her of rape during medical examinations.
Darmanin's lawyers said the interior minister himself would not comment on the investigation into claims by plaintiff Sophie Patterson-Spatz of rape, sexual harassment and abuse of trust dating back to 2009.