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| - A deputy mayor of Paris resigned Monday after allegations of sexual harassment levelled by a co-worker, the municipality said, just weeks after another deputy mayor stepped down amid protests over links to a known paedophile. Pierre Aidenbaum, 78, tendered his resignation just over two months after he was appointed deputy mayor responsible for the Seine River that flows through the French capital, the city council announced. The allegations against Aidenbaum "were immediately reported to the public prosecutor", the council said in a statement. The public prosecutor's office said a "sexual assault" investigation has been opened. Aidenbaum, who had been mayor of Paris's Third Arrondissement for a quarter of a century, insisted in a statement sent to AFP by his lawyers that he had done "nothing criminal whatsoever" and asked to be heard "as soon as possible to show his innocence". His resignation came after another deputy to Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Christophe Girard, resigned his post in July after opposition politicians and women's groups demanded his suspension over ties to Gabriel Matzneff, an award-winning writer who has never hidden his preference for sex with adolescent girls and boys. Girard has since himself been accused of sexually abusing a minor in a New York Times report he has vehemently denied, though he continues to serve on the city council. According to the Paris municipal website, Aidenbaum also remains on the council despite his resignation as deputy mayor. "The city council will remain intractable with all types of acts of moral or sexual harassment, whoever the author," the municipality's statement said. burs-mlr/jh/mbx
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