A French senator has been preliminarily charged with drugging a female lawmaker with ecstasy in order to rape her, the public prosecutor’s office said Friday.

Joël Guerriau, 66, a member of the center-right Horizons party, was arrested Thursday, two days after fellow lawmaker Sandrine Josso, 48, allegedly had a glass of champagne with him at his Paris home and then complained of feeling unwell.

Josso said she recalled Guerriau grabbing a "small plastic bag containing something white, in a drawer in his kitchen," her lawyer Julia Minkowski told AFP.

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"She had to deploy monumental physical and intellectual forces to overcome her terror and extricate herself at the last minute from this ambush," Minkowski said, adding that her client was "in a state of shock."

Guerriau was preliminarily charged with drugging another lawmaker with the aim of carrying out a rape or sexual assault, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. Preliminary charges under French law mean investigating magistrates have strong reason to suspect wrongdoing but allow more time before determining whether to send a case to trial.

Tests revealed that Josso had ecstasy in her system, investigators said, prompting her to file a criminal complaint.

Police later searched Guerriau’s office and home where they found ecstasy, the broadcasting station RMC reported. 

Guerriau has been suspended from the Horizons party, according to the Associated Press. 

The senator's lawyer, Remi-Pierre Drai, gave an initial statement stressing that "we are miles away from the obscene interpretation that one might infer from reading initial reports in the press."

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"Guerriau is not a predator... he is an honest man, respected and respectable, who will restore his and his family's honor," the lawyer said. 

Guerriau was also indicted for possessing drugs and placed under judicial supervision, his lawyer added.

His lawyer said Guerriau didn’t intend to drug Josso to abuse her and has apologized to her. Drai said in a statement that ‘’it was a handling error’’ that caused the lawmaker to fall ill, although he did not elaborate.

The two lawmakers had not been in a romantic relationship and had been friends for about 10 years, according to reports. 

Josso serves in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, and is a member of the Democratic, MoDem and Independents groups. The French Senate is the upper house.

Guerriau, who was originally a banker, has served in the French Senate since 2011 and is deputy head of its foreign and military affairs committee.

Josso has been in office since 2017.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pope Francis will be meeting with the families of Israeli hostages and groups of Palestinians displaced by the ongoing conflict.

The pontiff will meet with both groups following a General Audience at the Vatican on Nov. 22.

"Pope Francis will meet separately with a group of relatives of Israelis held hostage in Gaza and a group of family members of Palestinians suffering from the conflict in Gaza," said Director of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni.

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The groups will meet with Pope Francis separately — the Vatican made clear the talks were strictly of "a humanitarian nature."

There remain up to 238 Hamas hostages in Gaza, and 10 of them are believed to be Americans. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claims more than 11,200 Gazans have been killed in the fighting, though they do not distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas terrorists.

Bruni stated, "As he stated at the end of last Sunday's Angelus, 'Every human being, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, of any people and religion, every human being is sacred, precious in the eyes of God, and has the right to live in peace."

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He added that Pope Francis wishes to express "spiritual closeness to the suffering of each individual."

The Israeli military continues to target Hamas leadership in northern Gaza and has captured several the terrorist groups' key bases in the region.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck an Islamic Jihad stronghold overnight Thursday during continued ground operations in Gaza. 

Communication systems are down in the Palestinian territory for the second day as U.N. aid agencies warn the Gaza Strip lacks adequate food and clean water. 

More than 12,000 people have been killed on both sides in the Israel-Hamas war.

Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom, Louis Casiano and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.