French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez on Thursday denied arranging the leak of information to the press about the alleged discovery of drugs in European lawmaker Rima Hassan’s bag when she was detained on 2 April, saying he had urged journalists who spoke to him to exercise caution.
Nuñez explains the source of the journalists’ information
During a hearing before a special committee examining a comprehensive law on sexual violence, Nuñez said journalists had informally asked him about Hassan’s detention while already possessing detailed information about it. He added that he did not know how they had obtained it, saying it was unusual for them to have that level of information.
The minister’s comments came in response to female lawmakers from La France Insoumise who called for his resignation, and ahead of the broadcast of a television program that said Nuñez had partly contributed to spreading false information that the European lawmaker affiliated with the party had drugs in her possession. Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament, had been summoned and detained on suspicion of glorifying terrorism over a post she made on X.
Prosecutors close drug-possession investigation
According to a journalist’s account cited by the television program, Nuñez said when asked on 2 April that the information might be accurate. He referred to a synthetic substance and another derived from cocaine, while acknowledging that he did not know their exact nature. Another journalist said the minister also presented Hassan’s account during her detention: that she had bought the substances in Belgium and believed they were permitted.
Nuñez, for his part, stressed that he had not arranged any leak and that his conversation with journalists had included a call for caution. Hassan’s lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, said that, if confirmed, the facts would be extremely serious and could constitute a further breach of the confidentiality of the investigation and the presumption of innocence. He called for a judicial investigation, while lawmakers and senior officials from La France Insoumise called for the interior minister’s resignation.
