Prominent French political expert accused of sexually abusing stepson

PARIS • One of France's leading political commentators is facing a criminal investigation after being accused of the sexual abuse of his stepson, in the latest taboo-breaking scandal to rock the French intellectual elite.

Mr Olivier Duhamel, 70, who has described the incest allegations as "personal attacks", is accused in a new book, written by his stepdaughter Camille Kouchner, of abusing her twin brother when they were aged 14.

Paris prosecutors said last Tuesday they were opening an investigation into Mr Duhamel over suspected rape and sexual abuse of a minor by a person in authority.

He has stepped down from all his media and academic posts amid the furore.

The book, La Familia Grande, has shocked French intellectual circles given Mr Duhamel's prominence and close connections to the elite.

While many commentators have cast France as being slow to break longstanding taboos over the abuse of minors, this is not the first such controversy to make headlines over the last year.

Publisher Vanessa Springora, in a book published last January accused prize-winning writer Gabriel Matzneff of abusing her while she was a minor.

Film star Adele Haenel in November 2019 accused director Christophe Ruggia of sexually harassing her when she was in her early teens.

Haenel and other French actresses walked out of France's Cesar awards last February after Roman Polanski - wanted in the United States for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 - won best director.

Mr Duhamel said on Twitter that he was resigning from all his posts following the allegations, including as head of the National Foundation of Political Sciences, which oversees the hugely prestigious Sciences Po university.

"I am stepping down from my posts after being the target of personal attacks as I want to preserve the institutions in which I work," said Mr Duhamel, who also until now presented a show on Europe 1 radio and is an analyst on LCI TV.

Ms Kouchner, now 45 and a lecturer, and her twin brother are the children of France's former foreign minister and co-founder of the Medecins Sans Frontieres medical charity Bernard Kouchner and academic Evelyne Pisier.

The parents separated and Ms Pisier went on to marry Mr Duhamel.

"I was 14 years old and let it go ahead. I was 14, I knew and said nothing," Ms Kouchner wrote in the book.

She names her brother only as "Victor" in the book to shield his privacy.

But Le Monde daily said he had read the text twice and was happy for her to speak on his behalf.

"I confirm that what my sister has written concerning the actions of Olivier Duhamel towards me is correct," he said.

In an interview with L'Obs magazine, Ms Kouchner said the book revealed to what extent Mr Duhamel's and Ms Pisier's group of leftist intellectual friends, some of them household names in France, knew what was going on.

"Of course, I thought my book might seem obscene because of my family's fame," she said.

"Then I thought to myself, this is exactly what needs to be done."

In the book, she alleges a de facto omerta had protected her stepfather from the truth being widely known.

"Very quickly, the people in power, Saint-Germain-des-Pres (the traditional hub in Paris for leftist thinkers), were aware. Many knew and most acted as if nothing had happened."

The book says that after his mother's death in 2017, "Victor" told his father about what had happened.

He pledged to confront Mr Duhamel but was persuaded against doing so by Ms Kouchner herself, on the grounds that "Victor" wanted the family to move on.

In a statement released by his lawyer, Mr Kouchner said a "heavy secret that has been weighing on us for too long has happily been lifted".

"I applaud the courage of my daughter Camille."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE