French MP says still 'in shock' after alleged drugging by senator
A French MP said on Tuesday she was still in a state of shock but needed to speak out for other victims of drink spiking, after her alleged drugging by a senator who has been charged with seeking to assault her.
Sandrine Josso, an MP for the centrist MoDem party, broke her public silence after the incident last week, which has rocked France's parliamentary establishment and raised concerns it could be part of a wider malaise.
Senator Joel Guerriau, who insists there was no wrongdoing, has been suspended from his centrist Horizons party and faced calls to effectively resign from the upper house, the Senate.
Josso accuses the 66-year-old of spiking her champagne with the drug ecstasy while they were having drinks at his Paris home last week.
Traces of the drug were found in her blood and ecstasy was also found at his flat.
"Today I am still in a state of shock," she told BFM-TV in an interview on Tuesday.
"I tell myself that bit by bit I am getting better."
She had to face Guerriau during questioning last week -- a standard practice in France -- and said she had found his mere presence "unbearable".
Josso, 48, recalled how at the apartment she saw him in the kitchen with a white sachet and noticed that "the champagne did not have the same taste".
"It was more sugary," she recalled.
She then experienced nausea and heart palpitations and rushed out of the apartment.
"Sandrine, save yourself. He has drugged you!" she said she told herself, adding that she was lucky to have found a taxi.
Josso had also told France 5 TV in an interview late on Monday that she "just had the necessary survival instinct" at the apartment of the senator, who she described as a friend for the last 10 years.
She warned: "We can all go through what I suffered" and said her duty now was "to raise awareness" and "urge government to do something in relation to this scourge" of drink spiking.
The right-wing speaker of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, on Monday urged Guerriau to suspend all activities linked to his job as senator due to "the extreme seriousness of the accusations he faces".
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Sandrine Josso, an MP for the centrist MoDem party, broke her public silence after the incident last week, which has rocked France's parliamentary establishment and raised concerns it could be part of a wider malaise.
Senator Joel Guerriau, who insists there was no wrongdoing, has been suspended from his centrist Horizons party and faced calls to effectively resign from the upper house, the Senate.
Josso accuses the 66-year-old of spiking her champagne with the drug ecstasy while they were having drinks at his Paris home last week.
Traces of the drug were found in her blood and ecstasy was also found at his flat.
"Today I am still in a state of shock," she told BFM-TV in an interview on Tuesday.
"I tell myself that bit by bit I am getting better."
She had to face Guerriau during questioning last week -- a standard practice in France -- and said she had found his mere presence "unbearable".
Josso, 48, recalled how at the apartment she saw him in the kitchen with a white sachet and noticed that "the champagne did not have the same taste".
"It was more sugary," she recalled.
She then experienced nausea and heart palpitations and rushed out of the apartment.
"Sandrine, save yourself. He has drugged you!" she said she told herself, adding that she was lucky to have found a taxi.
Josso had also told France 5 TV in an interview late on Monday that she "just had the necessary survival instinct" at the apartment of the senator, who she described as a friend for the last 10 years.
She warned: "We can all go through what I suffered" and said her duty now was "to raise awareness" and "urge government to do something in relation to this scourge" of drink spiking.
The right-wing speaker of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, on Monday urged Guerriau to suspend all activities linked to his job as senator due to "the extreme seriousness of the accusations he faces".
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