The provisional suspension of the president of the Haitian football federation, Yves Jean-Bart, accused of rape of underage players, pronounced at the end of May, has been extended by 90 days, FIFA announced Thursday.
Yves Jean-Bart (right) with Sepp Blatter
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At the request of the president of the investigative chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, the provisional suspension imposed on May 25, 2020 on Yves Jean-Bart, “was extended by the president of the adjudicatory chamber for a 90-day additional period, ”FIFA said in a statement. During this period, the president of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF) “will continue not to be able to exercise any activity relating to football at the national and international levels”, specified the body.
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Yves Jean-Bart is the subject of an investigation by the brigade for the protection of minors of the Haitian judicial police. According to young girls quoted in an article published in late April in the newspaper The Guardian, Yves Jean-Bart would have raped many underage players in recent years.
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20 years of reign
Testifying to pressure to remain silent, alleged victims told the newspaper, on condition of anonymity, that at least two underage players had aborted following rapes committed by the president of the federation in the national training center .
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Yves Jean-Bart, 73, has headed the FHF for two decades. Without a candidate facing him, his re-election in February to a sixth term was a formality. Denying outright the charges against him, he filed a complaint in Paris against the French journalist co-author of the Guardian.
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Extended survey
FIFA’s internal justice also announced that it had “widened the scope of the investigation” and temporarily suspended for 90 days two other Haitian football officials: Nella Joseph, supervisor for young girls at the national technical center of Croix- des-Bouquets, and Wilner Etienne, technical director of the FHF.
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The preliminary investigation currently being conducted “includes the analysis of potential crimes committed by other officials of the FHF and Haitian football,” added FIFA.
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(AFP)
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