The Port-au-Prince Court of Appeal ordered the personal appearance of the former president of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF) Yves Jean-Bart, accused of sexually abusing minors. Jean-Bart was the subject of an investigation along with other FHF officials allegedly implicated as perpetrators, accomplices or instigators of acts of systematic sexual abuse against players between 2014 and 2020.
Civil society organizations for the defense and promotion of human rights praised this Thursday the decision of the Court of Appeal of the capital, which ordered the personal appearance of Jean-Bart.
“This decision is the consequence of the testimony given by several organizations before the judges of the Court of Appeal of Port-au-Prince. Heard for the first time, these organizations have requested a new objective and impartial judicial investigation,” says the statement published this Thursday by several organizations.
The note is signed by the Collective of Lawyers Specialized in Strategic Human Rights Litigation (Calsdh), feminist organizations such as Kay Fanm, Haitian Women Solidarity (SOFA) and the Toya Foundation, as well as by the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights ( RNDDH).
These organizations consider that the investigation carried out by magistrate Emilio Accimé, of the Croix-des-Bouquets court, has not sought to “clarify the serious accusations of rape, sexual commercialization, forced abortions and debauchery” that weigh on the former president of the Haitian Football Federation under his authority at the ‘Camp Nou’ Academy”.
“It is the duty of Haitian justice to collaborate with all the necessary national and international institutions capable of helping in the search for information and identification of the victims, in particular victims A and B who testified before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in this case,” the note states.
Likewise, the entities appeal to the witnesses and any other person who can provide pertinent information to contribute to the progress of the investigation, so that the Haitian justice can fully clarify the serious accusations of rape, sexual commercialization, forced abortions and debauchery attributed to Jean-Bart.
The signatory organizations reaffirm their determination to support the Haitian criminal justice system in this emblematic case so that justice is done for the victims of abuse and sexual and gender violence in the world of Haitian sports.
In 2020, the resolution chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee issued Jean-Bart’s ban for life to carry out any activity related to football (administrative, sports or of any other type) both nationally and internationally.
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