A French senator has been arrested and questioned by police on suspicion of drugging a member of parliament with the intent to rape or sexually assault her. Joël Guerriau, 66, a centre-right politician of Les Indépendants, was arrested this week at his Paris home, which was searched along with his office. The French prosecutor’s office told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Guerriau, a senator for Loire-Atlantique, was being questioned over “administering to a person, against their knowledge, a substance that could alter their discernment or the control of their actions in order to commit a rape or sexual assault”. The alleged incident took place on Tuesday night. AFP reported that the woman who filed the police complaint was a member of the lower house of parliament, the Assemblée Nationale, but she has not been named and the prosecutor’s office has not given any information about her. The woman allegedly became ill after drinking from a glass at Guerriau’s home. She is not in a relationship with the senator. Prosecutors said medical tests on the woman revealed the presence of ecstasy. A search of the senator’s home found ecstasy, AFP reported. Guerriau, a banker, was elected to the senate in 2011 and is vice-president of its foreign affairs, defence and armed forces commission. His lawyer, Rémi-Pierre Drai, said: “We are very far from the indecent interpretation that can be deduced from the first media articles.” Drai expressed his anger that elements of the inquiry had appeared in the French media, and said he would give “no information” on the case “out of respect” for his client and the woman who filed the complaint.