A 39-year-old evangelical pastor was sentenced Friday, September 24 to 14 years in prison by the Hauts-de-Seine assize court for the rapes of seven women, members of his religious community.
Read also Hauts-de-Seine: an evangelical pastor tried at the assizes for rape
After two weeks of closed-door trial, he was found guilty of “
abusing his pastoral role
” by raping seven women.
Regarding an eighth charge of rape with aggravating circumstance, he was acquitted.
He threatened them with "divine punishments"
"
It is a balanced decision which respects the various interests present
", reacted after the hearing the defense lawyer, Me Karine Shebabo. The prosecution had requested 18 years in prison. In addition to the 14 years of imprisonment, Abraham M. was struck with a definitive ban from exercising his function as pastor.
This Franco-Ivorian man with a clean criminal record, founder of a church located in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, denied the charges against him. He was arrested, indicted and then placed in pre-trial detention in May 2018. During the investigation, he had admitted sex with most of the victims but assured that they were consented. The complaints against him, he had explained, were part of a "
plot
" hatched by former "
jealous
"
mistresses
. A large part of the victims were living with him at the time of the incident, between 2010 and 2018.
During the investigation, many accusers described the pressures and manipulations he exerted on them, claiming that he justified his rapes by "
the will of God
" and threatened them with "
divine retribution
" if they refused his
rapes.
sexual advances.
According to the prosecution, the man was considered in his religious community "
as a true
"
prophet
"
endowed with supernatural powers transmitted by God
".
