The former French minister Georges Tron is to go on trial accused of raping and sexually assaulting female staff at the town hall in Draveil, south of Paris, where he is mayor, reports The Guardian.
Two former town hall employees allege Tron made them submit to foot massages that turned into rape and sexual assault.
Tron, who denies all the allegations, was forced to resign from his junior cabinet post under Nicolas Sarkozy in 2011. The high-profile case became a symbol of women daring to speak out against powerful politicians in France.
The women made complaints against Tron days after the French former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested over the alleged attempted rape of a New York hotel worker in May 2011. They said the allegations against Strauss-Kahn had emboldened them to speak out.
Tron and his town hall culture head, Brigitte Gruel, who is accused of aiding and taking part in the attacks, face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Both deny the attacks. Tron, a rightwinger, claims the case against him is a plot by far-right political opponents.
Although Tron lost his cabinet seat, he ran again for mayor of Draveil and was re-elected, despite the accusations against him.
When the women first went to police, one alleged how Tron boasted of his experience in reflexology to launch attacks that would begin with him grabbing women’s feet.