French minister faces sex harassment complaint

French prosecutors have opened an inquiry into sexual harassment accusations leveled against a junior minister by two women, one of whom said the arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sex crime charges encouraged her to speak up.

The two women filed the complaints this week against George Tron, a minister in charge of the civil service in the center-right government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to their lawyer, Gilbert Collard.

Prosecutor Marie-Suzanne Le Queau told Reuters in response to a telephone query that a preliminary inquiry had been opened as a result of the accusations. "The inquiry will cover (suspected) counts of sexual assault and rape," Le Queau said. All types of penetration can be classified as rape in France.

Collard, lawyer for the two women, said that the complaints contained an accusation against Tron of sexual harassment.

Tron's attorney, Olivier Schnerb, dismissed the complaints and said he had been instructed to file a defamation complaint in return. "All of this is grotesque," he told reporters. "It's a succession of false assertions that are entirely defamatory."

'Incredible' allegations, says Tron
Tron, quoted by the daily newspaper Le Parisien as saying the accusations were "incredible," told Reuters he had informed Prime Minister Francois Fillon about the matter and said the plaintiffs were women who had been dismissed from their town hall posts in Draveil, just south of Paris, where Tron is the mayor.

"The complaint was sent by mail on Monday and reiterated by the plaintiffs this morning," Collard said.

One of the women described the reasons for her complaint in an interview, under an assumed name, in Le Parisien.

She said the 53-year-old minister touched her inappropriately on various occasions during a two-year stint at Draveil town hall, where she worked for a time on the reception desk of Tron's office.

She said she was driven to break her silence after former IMF chief Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with attempted rape on the basis of the accusations of a New York hotel maid in a case that stunned France and the world.

"When I see that a little chambermaid is capable of taking on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I tell myself I do not have the right to stay silent," said the woman, whom the newspaper called Laura, adding that this was not her real name.

Strauss-Kahn, who had been the favorite to win next year's French presidential election, was arrested in New York on May 14 and has been charged with trying to rape a Sofitel Hotel maid, charges he has denied and vowed to fight.

The arrest has triggered soul-searching and debate in France about tolerance of sexual harassment and French media reluctance to pursue and highlight such issues more aggressively.

In his comments to Le Parisien, Tron suggested the complaint against him was motivated by vengeance and also spoke of a link to a local dispute over a property development.

He added that the two women were connected to people from the political far right who were involved in that dispute.

The two women had been dismissed from their town hall jobs following disciplinary procedures, he told the newspaper, which added that he refused to comment on the substance of the accusations made against him.