German reporter files sex assault charge against French ex-president

BERLIN: A German journalist told AFP on Thursday that she has filed a case against former French president Valery Giscard d´Estaing, accusing him of sexual assault in 2018. Ann-Kathrin Stracke, 37, a journalist working for German public television WDR alleged that Giscard d´Estaing — then aged 92 — placed his hands on her backside three times while she was in his Parisian office for an interview in December 2018. “I decided to tell my story because I think that people should know that a French former president harassed me sexually after an interview,” she told AFP. She took her case to Paris prosecutors on March 10 this year, backed by her employer which carried out an independent investigation into her claims. Contacted by AFP, Paris prosecutors did not provide a comment immediately. The former president´s aides also did not comment. Recalling the interview on December 18, 2018, the journalist said she had asked for a photograph to be taken with Giscard d´Estaing and her colleagues after the interview.