The Paris prosecutor's office told AFP on Tuesday that it had opened several investigations on January 10 following reports from MPs who suspect presidents of sports federations of having given false testimony before a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
These reports come from elected officials who sat on the National Assembly's commission of inquiry, which conducted a series of hearings over several months on the shortcomings of sports federations and their responses to gender-based and sexual violence, on the fight against racism and on their financial management.
These investigations, which are opened separately for each of the reports, are carried out by the press and protection of civil liberties section of the Public Prosecutor's Office. Six reports, received at the Paris prosecutor's office on 26 December, refer to "false testimonies under oath", the public prosecutor said on 4 January, confirming a report in the daily Le Monde.
Sabrina Sebaihi, the committee's Green rapporteur, also said she had issued a seventh report against Nadir Allouache, president of the French Federation of Kickboxing, Muay Thai and Associated Disciplines (FFKMDA). She is due to present the report of the Commission of Inquiry on 23 January.
Gilles Moretton, president of the French Tennis Federation (FFT), is being targeted for several of his statements about financial elements. According to Le Monde, he is accused, among other things, of having claimed that the "subject" of the suspicions of corruption and embezzlement of public assets against him and in connection with the Roland-Garros ticket office was "closed" while a preliminary investigation was opened on this subject in July 2023 by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF).
Five other leaders are suspected by MPs of "not having denounced facts of sexual and gender-based violence of which (they) may have been aware", according to the newspaper.
They are Serge Lecomte, President of the French Equestrian Federation (FFE), Gwenaëlle Noury, President of the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG), Jean-Luc Rougé, former head of the French Federation of Judo and Associated Disciplines (FFJDA) and current Secretary General of the International Judo Federation, Jean Lapeyre, Legal Director of the French Football Federation (FFF) and Fabien Canu, Director General of the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP).