Pedophilia in football: the president of the Gabon Federation indicted

Published on: 05/05/2022 – 19:13 The president of the Gabonese Football Federation, Pierre Alain Mounguengui, has been indicted and placed under arrest warrant in Libreville, his lawyer announced on Thursday. Pierre Alain Mounguengui is accused of “non-denunciation of crimes of pedophilia”, in the context of a child sexual abuse case targeting former coach Patrick Assoumou Eyi. It is a scandal that is shaking the sports community in Gabon. The president of the Gabonese Football Federation (Fégafoot), Pierre Alain Mounguengui, was indicted and placed under arrest warrant in Libreville for “failure to report crimes of pedophilia” in a case of alleged sexual abuse of hundreds of children, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday May 5. The scandal, revealed by the British daily The Guardian in December 2021, erupted when Patrick Assoumou Eyi, coach of the national under-17 team until in 2017 and a well-known figure in Gabonese football under the nickname “Capello”, was imprisoned after being accused of hundreds of rapes and sexual assaults on children for whom he was responsible in his functions for several years. Patrick Assoumou Eyi was, since 2017 and until his arrest, technical director of the Estuaire football league, the province of the capital, Libreville. Since his arrest, two club coaches, Orphée Mickala and Triphel Mabicka, have also been indicted for the same charges and imprisoned. The three men risk 30 years in prison. The president of the Federation “contests” the accusationPierre Alain Mounguengui, 64, re-elected at the end of April as president of Fégafoot (the Gabonese Football Federation), “was indicted for non-denunciation of crimes of pedophilia, which he contests,” his lawyer, Charles-Henri Gey, told AFP. “He has been placed under a warrant of committal and we have requested his provisional release.” “Pierre Alain Mounguengui is accused of having covered up the alleged attacks committed by ‘Capello'”, assured AFP Romain Molina at the end of April. , a French journalist who wrote the investigation in The Guardian. >> To read also: Pedophilia in Gabonese football, “an open secret” “We are delirious, there is for the moment no identified victim”, declared Me Charles-Henri Gey, adding: “This affair is only a pretext for Pierre Alain Mounguengui to no longer be president of Fégafoot.”Fifa on Tuesday opened a disciplinary investigation targeting the three coaches accused of acts of pedophilia as well as Pierre-Alain Mounguengui. “very serious and unacceptable” affair, denounces the President of Gabon The Gabonese Minister of Sports, Franck Nguema, declared in December that Patrick Assoumou Eyi “would have abused hundreds of young boys in the course of his duties”. The scandal then splashed Gabonese taekwondo: Martin Avera, a trainer known by the nickname “Master Chaka”, was indicted in Libreville for pedophilia and sexual abuse, and imprisoned in January. Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba had referred to a “very serious and unacceptable” affair after the questioning of “Capello” and ordered the government to ask the courts to open an investigation in football but also in all the national sports federations, to “eradicate the potential sexual predators”. With AFP