The Senate wants to take over the issue of sexual violence in sport. A week after the release of the shocking book by former skater Sarah Abitbol, who accuses her ex-trainer of rape, and other testimonies of affected sportswomen, the Culture Committee of the Palais du Luxembourg announced Thursday, February 6, in a communicated its willingness to proceed to hearings "from this month of February". She wishes to be able to hear the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu, engaged in a standoff with the president of the French Federation of Ice Sports (FFSG) Didier Gailhaguet, and victims of sexual abuse in sport.
Contacted, the office of the Minister of Sports said it would respond favorably to this request. This work should make it possible “to measure the extent of the dysfunctions encountered in the protection of minors. They should also make it possible to identify the necessary legislative changes, "write the senators, who also wish to set up a" round table bringing together sportspeople and associations committed against sexual violence ".
"No one would be safe"
One of the elected members of the upper house wishes to go further. Senator (PS) of Creuse, Jean-Jacques Lozach sent a request to open a parliamentary committee of inquiry on the subject. "It is something much more excavated than a simple hearing, it would be more effective for speech to be freed," said the man who had been the rapporteur of the commission of inquiry on doping in 2013.
VIDEO. Sarah Abitbol: "My shame turns into pride"
“Seven years ago, we notably heard Laurent Jalabert. These hours and hours of meetings then fed legislative proposals, he describes. We are obliged to take an oath and the law punishes those who lie in it. With a commission of inquiry, no one would be immune. "
A week after its release, the book “Un si long silence” (Plon), which launched the business, reached 20,000 copies sold on Thursday, according to an estimate by the publishing house. Accused by Sarah Abitbol in this book, his former trainer Gilles Beyer explained to him, through his lawyer Thibault de Montbrial, that he was "at the disposal of justice" after the opening on Tuesday of '' a preliminary investigation for rape and sexual assault on minors by a person having authority over the victim by the Paris public prosecutor's office.
