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"My life was hell."
The chilling testimony of the handball player from Romania
Mariana Chattiner was the last person arrested in her homeland because of sexual orientation.
Now she reveals: "A handball coach raped me when I was 13. I got pregnant and had an abortion. I'm not the only one who was abused."
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Rumania
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Walla!
sport
Tuesday, 23 February 2021, 12:20
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Mariana Camerica Chatiner Today (Photo: Screenshot, YouTube)
Former Romanian handball player Mariana Marica Chetiner, who became famous in the 90s, revealed yesterday (Sunday) how she became a victim of sexual, physical and mental abuse in her youth by a coach at the boarding school where she stayed.
Chetiner became famous when in 1996 she was arrested and put on trial for what was defined as an "attempt to seduce another woman," or in other words: for being a lesbian.
She was sent to prison, human rights organizations caused a worldwide outcry and after about two and a half years she was released from prison.
Chetiner is the last person in Romania to be tried under section 200 of local law, according to which same-sex relationships are prohibited.
The clause was removed in 2001.
Chetiner had a very difficult life.
Her father was not in the picture at all and she was abandoned by her mother and raised in an orphanage in communist Romania.
At a young age she excelled in sports and when she was 12, in the late 60s, she was transferred to a boarding school for outstanding athletes, where she focused on handball.
The gates of hell were also opened there.
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Chatiner's picture in Amnesty's campaign for release from prison (Photo: screenshot, YouTube)
Responsible for the atrocities, according to Chetiner, was Grigora Nitza - a well-known handball coach in the 70s and 80s who coached, among other things, Romania's boys' and youth handball teams.
"I had no parents, I lived in an orphanage and was regularly abused," she said yesterday, "When I moved to a sports boarding school, the coach there also raped me, yes, Gregory Nice. If we had not scored goals, he would have hit us. "Throw 10 shots now and if you don't conquer them all, the devil will take you."
Chetiner added: "I was not the only one who was abused. It started at age 12, Nitza would call us into the room and instruct us to undress. When I refused, he told me, 'Tomorrow you will return to the orphanage and the devil will take you.' ? He controlled my life.
"He raped me until I got pregnant.
I was 12-13 years old, had an abortion in the fifth month and almost lost my life.
It was hard, awful!
He was a dirty man, I do not know if he is still alive, but the world needs to know, it must not be erased.
"When you have no parents, you live a hellish life. I went through a hard life."
"When I refused to undress, the coach said to me, 'Tomorrow you will return to the orphanage and the devil will take you.' I was silent, who could have saved me?"
Chatiner in the 90s (Photo: screenshot, YouTube)
In the 90s, when she was playing for Rapid Bucharest, Chetiner (then called Marika) married a Turkish citizen with connections in the world of handball and he helped her sign for Glatsray and then for Dutch side Utrecht.
The marriage ran aground and in 1995 she returned to Romania alone.
She found a small apartment with two partners in the city of Alba Julia and due to the overcrowding, slept with one of them, Edina and Anna, in the same room.
The two became close friends, until one night Chattiner revealed to Vana that she was a lesbian and that she was in love with her.
She told her that same-sex marriage is allowed in the Netherlands and even offered her to have sex.
The company refused, but Zetiner did not give up and in the following days repeated its offer several more times.
After a few days, the three partners went for a walk and in the cabin where they were staying in the mountains, the handball player again made an offer to have sex.
The two responded with a firm refusal and instead a quarrel developed that included throwing glasses.
Relations between the three became tense and full of incidents.
One day the two decided to file a complaint against Chetiner with the police alleging that she was trying to seduce Vana into having lesbian sex.
The former handball player, who at the time was already making a living from handball training and learning to swim, claimed that Vana owed her money, could not pay and therefore harassed her, but nothing helped.
She was sentenced to prison and released after international pressure from human rights organizations.
Chetiner, 63, now lives in Germany after seeking asylum in the late 1990s.
She underwent intensive psychological treatment and got a job as a sports teacher.
She stated yesterday: "I have a lawyer in Romania who is preparing a lawsuit against the state. I am not interested in money, I want justice to be done."
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