Coin Press - French culture boss accused of mass drinks spiking to humiliate women

But instead she left their meeting in pain feeling utterly humiliated.

She claims Christian Negre slipped a powerful diuretic into her coffee to make her urinate, then took her on a three-and-a-half-hour walk in central Paris in high heels.

"I started to have cold sweats, chills and hot flashes, a bloated stomach, and my feet really, really hurt," Zarouri, now 35, told AFP.

"I thought I was going to die."

Zarouri is one of around 200 women to have accused Negre, a former human resources manager, of having spiked their hot drinks to belittle them.

They say he watched his female interviewees writhe in pain, some to the point of relieving themselves in front of him.

Unlike other women who accuse him, Zarouri eventually did manage to insist they return to the ministry -- where he had said she should leave her bag -- so she could go to the toilet.

When she came out, he was waiting just outside. She said she blamed herself for drinking the coffee and wearing heels.

"I told myself it was my fault," she said.

It was not until the media reported on similar cases four years later that she understood.

- 'Unacceptable' -

Negre was eventually charged with "administering a harmful substance" to the women without their knowledge, "sexual assault" by a person abusing their authority and "invasion of privacy".

Investigators have since discovered that between 2009 and 2018 he preyed on 197 women job-seekers of all ages, whose names and reactions to the drug he listed in a spreadsheet, a source close to the case told AFP on condition of anonymity.

But many victims, including Zarouri, feel the probe is taking too long, and worry that Negre -- who is under judicial control but can still work -- could still target someone else.

"It's unacceptable," she told AFP.

"He needs to be kept away from other women."

Negre in 2018 admitted to investigators he had "imposed humiliating situations on women" during job interviews. The ministry fired him the following year.

Regional newspaper Ouest France reported in October that he had spent two years working as a teacher at a business school in Normandy under a pseudonym.

Contacted by AFP, his lawyer Vanessa Stein said he did not wish to comment.

France has become more aware of the use of drugs to commit abuse since a court last year sentenced a man to 20 years in jail for drugging his then-wife Gisele Pelicot and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her.

In another case, a paedophile surgeon who practised until retirement was convicted this year of sexually abusing more than 290 patients.

Both kept a meticulous record of their crimes.

The Women's Foundation, a feminist association, says the diuretic case is just as important as these, and has provided legal counsel to 45 of the accusers.

The file bears all the hallmarks of a typical sexual abuse case -- from lack of consent to a desire to dominate, the foundation's Floriane Volt said.

"It's 200 women whose dignity can be trampled, whose only interesting feature is a line on an Excel spreadsheet," she said.

- Overstretched magistrates -

The source with knowledge of the case said the investigation was still ongoing -- but slowly due to the number of victims, lack of resources and amount of paperwork.

In Paris, each investigating magistrate handles around 100 cases, and has to give priority to those in which suspects are detained.

In the probe, a single court clerk has to inform each of the 197 civil parties of any new step taken by registered mail, the source said, and every time a victim seeks an expert opinion the whole process is again delayed.

But investigators are to meet all the complainants early next year to give them an update, AFP has learnt.

A trial in a criminal court will likely also take time to organise.

But an administrative court in 2023 awarded one woman 12,000 euros ($14,000 today) in damages, finding the French state guilty for failing to protect her and another six women.

Negre had taken the woman for a walk in 2012. She soon felt a painful urge to urinate, and was forced to do so in front of him under a bridge.

X.Cheung--CPN