Montbéliard (France) (AFP)

The athlete Ophélie Claude-Boxberger, under suspension for doping with EPO, lodged a complaint in October for "aggravated rape" when she was a minor against her ex-trainer and stepfather Alain Flaccus, a AFP learned on Wednesday.

"Ophélie Claude-Boxberger filed a complaint for aggravated rape for acts committed between 2002 and 2007", while she was a minor, explained her lawyer Me Laurent Clauzon.

A complaint then confirmed by the Montbéliard prosecutor's office.

Alain Flaccus, former trainer of the athlete also ex-companion of his mother, has always denied any sexual abuse, and is also at the heart of the doping case at the EPO of Ophélie Claude-Boxberger which erupted for more than a year, and in which the twists and turns are increasing.

Alain Flaccus' lawyer, Jean-Baptiste Euvrard, said he had never been informed of this complaint.

Tested positive on September 18, 2019, the 3,000 m steeplechase specialist has been provisionally suspended since November 4, 2019 by the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD).

After being accused in January with the AFLD of having injected EPO without the knowledge of the athlete, Alain Flaccus had retracted in June with AFP then in September during a new hearing at AFLD.

But it had meanwhile changed again in a letter dated August 17 to the AFLD, we learned on Wednesday.

"Returning from a few deserved days, I hereby confirm all of my answers following the hearing on January 23, 2020," he wrote in this handwritten document that AFP consulted.

"Mr. Flaccus wrote this letter after the + friendly + visit from Sylvie Claude (Ophélie's mother and her ex-partner) who begged him to stay on his first version. It is a new manifestation of the hold of which he was the object ", denounced his lawyer Me Jean-Baptiste Euvrard.

Me Laurent Clauzon was moved to have received these elements only in November: "When the AFLD hides this type of document from me, it goes much too far, we went from disloyalty to the intention of harming , and it borders on the criminal offense ".

While she risked four years of suspension, the athlete was notified in November of a new anti-doping offense, said his lawyer, linked to a suspicion of manipulation of Alain Flaccus.

She now risks eight years of suspension but has still not been called by the AFLD sanctions commission.

The different parties will meet on December 17 during a hearing at the Montbéliard court as part of a complaint by Ophélie Claude-Boxberger for poisoning against Alain Flaccus.

© 2020 AFP