Former French football boss Noël Le Graët was heard on Friday in Paris in a free hearing by the police officers responsible for investigating accusations of moral and sexual harassment targeting him, his lawyer said on Monday, confirming information from L’ Team. “He was heard in a free hearing. It was a natural step in this type of investigation. He responded to the best of his memory on old, even very old, remarks,” indicated Me Thierry Marembert.
When requested, the Paris prosecutor’s office did not respond immediately. After 11 years of reign, Mr. Le Graët left the head of the French Football Federation (FFF) at the end of February 2023 after several months of storm, weakened by clumsy declarations about the icon Zinédine Zidane and by testimonies from women to him. attributing inappropriate behavior.
“I have never harassed anyone, neither morally nor sexually”: Le Graët defends himself after his resignation and denounces a “cabal”
Two weeks earlier, an audit report established by the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) and commissioned by the Ministry of Sports had been revealed. A summary made public by the executive set out “behavioral deviations (…) incompatible with the exercise of functions and the requirement of exemplarity attached to it”.
He also pointed to “inappropriate public positions”, “inappropriate behavior (…) towards women” in particular through “SMS messages that are ambiguous for some and of a clearly sexual nature for others”.
In mid-January 2023, the Paris public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into moral and sexual harassment after a report from IGESR inspectors, entrusted to police officers from the Personal Crime Repression Brigade (BRDP). The former general director of the FFF Florence Hardouin, heard in April in this investigation, first filed a complaint against him, but ultimately reached a settlement agreement with Mr. Le Graët to withdraw her complaint.
A few hours after his departure from the FFF, Me Marembert announced a defamation complaint against Amélie Oudéa-Castera, then only Minister of Sports, accusing her of having “lied” about the IGESR report and highlighting a difference between the summary of the document published on February 15, which mentioned “words” and SMS messages, “words or writings that are ambiguous for some and of a clearly sexual nature for others”, and its entirety. Following this complaint, a judicial investigation has been open since June 21 at the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only court authorized to judge ministers in the exercise of their function. Mr. Le Graët’s defense also requested the annulment of the IGESR report before the administrative courts.