FIFA completes rape investigation of Haiti football chief
FIFA’s investigative arm has concluded it’s report on Haitian Football Federation president Yves Jean-Bart, who is accused of raping underage players, the governing body of the world football said on Thursday.
FIFA said the case would now be taken up by it’s disciplinary arm, the adjudicatory chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee.
The investigation followed a report in the Guardian in April that Jean-Bart sexually abused young female footballers at the country’s national training centre.
The accusation led to the opening of a criminal investigation in Haiti as well as the suspension of Jean-Bart by FIFA on May 25.
According to girls and former officials quoted by the Guardian in articles in April and August, Jean-Bart raped many underage players.
Saying they had been pressured to remain silent, the alleged victims told the newspaper on condition of anonymity that at least two underage players had to get abortions after Jean-Bart assaulted them.
FIFA said on Thursday that the investigation had been expanded to include Yvette Felix, an assistant coach at the training centre who has also been banned from football for 90 days.
That follows FIFA’s announcement in August that investigations had been widened to include other federation officials “who were identified as having allegedly been involved (as principals, accomplices or instigators) in acts of systematic sexual abuse against female football players”.