Paris (AFP)

A minister qualified as "moralizing", accusations of rape learned "a week ago", a dysfunctional ministry and a request for unjustified resignation: Didier Gailhaguet defends himself after the accusations of rape of a minor brought by the skater Sarah Abitbol against his ex-trainer Gilles Beyer.

The president of the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG) held a press conference on Wednesday, two days after being received by the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu.

The Minister asked the leader to resign and threatened to withdraw approval from the FFSG, accusing him of remaining on the federal team of Beyer, despite an administrative investigation highlighting inappropriate attitudes with young skaters. Abitbol revealed in a book published Thursday that she was abused from 1990 to 1992, when she was 15 to 17 years old.

. A "moralizing" minister

"If I am here before you, it is because the Minister did not hear me, draped in certainties and also in madness and sometimes inaccurate media coverage. I am here to re-establish a strict truth (...). when in this country was the presumption of innocence removed? The Federation is accused on the basis of media to say the least unleashed, of a moralizing minister and according to the opportunists of circumstance which we have not seen in ice rinks for some almost 10 years, with certain electoral thoughts ".

. The scandal: "I absolutely did not protect Gilles Beyer"

"I had never heard of the rapes of Sarah Abitbol and Hélène Godard. (...) 90% of these facts I discovered about them through the press and through a book, they are awful, unacceptable. ( ...) There was not a single case during my presidency which was not treated. (...) There was a first administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate on Mr. Beyer, made by the Ministry of Sports It was I who asked Madame Buffet and a member of his cabinet. I then learned that there was a police investigation into Mr. Beyer. This second investigation concluded that Mr. Beyer was clearing the facts So the prosecution did not prosecute. Why would I go against an investigation that I myself requested? It would be completely stupid. (...) I absolutely did not protect Gilles Beyer ".

. Buffet ministry's "dysfunctions"

"The Minister of Sports at the time (Marie-Georges Buffet) referred Mr. Beyer to National Education. (...) During an internship at POPB (Bercy), I found that Mr. Beyer supervised minors. I received him for an interview, I told him that he was unable to supervise minors, he told me that the Sports Ministry had given him back his professional card, that I stop bothering him, which turned out to be correct. And to crown the dysfunctions of the ministry, Mr. Beyer, and his club, continued to organize courses without interruption, with minors and the blessing of the State services. I leave you to judge. Admit that it is not lacking in salt. I did much more than my job, with my inexperience of the time and turned them over to the state. A sports federation is not justice, the police and more minus the sports ministry. I remind you that Mr. Beyer was whitewashed by the police, he has no criminal record diciaire ".

. His resignation requested: "I want to establish the truth"

"To be resigned, I would have to have committed a fault or I consider that I have not committed one. I will await the results of this inspection (requested by Roxana Maracineanu) before making a decision on this requested resignation. He m is asked to resign for facts that go back 30 years, when I was absent from the FFSG, facts that I have known for a week and a half. It is as if we asked the Minister to resign in her own swimming club in Clamart where he was found a sexual pervert. Did she also carry out an investigation? (...) I want to establish the truth as far as we are concerned. I am here to accompany this inspection and I ask for proof of everything I read in the media. (...) If the conclusions are unworthy of my mandate I will take the necessary decisions. "

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