Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra referred to trial before the CJR for defamation against Noël Le Graët

The minister was indicted in December in the investigation by the Court of Justice of the Republic following a complaint against her by the former boss of French football.

The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) ordered, on Thursday July 4, the referral for trial of Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera for defamation against the former boss of French football Noël Le Graët, declared the attorney general at the Court of Cassation Rémy Heitz.

Asked by AFP, the person who acts as public prosecutor at the CJR announced in a press release this referral, resulting from a procedure triggered by a complaint from Noël Le Graët in April 2023 following comments made by Amélie Oudéa-Castera, also Minister of the Olympic Games, in February and March of the same year on his management of the French Football Federation (FFF).

After eleven years of reign, Noël Le Graët resigned from the FFF with a bang in February 2023, following a damning audit report from the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) on his management, against a backdrop of accusations of sexual harassment.

The IGESR inspectors considered that Noël Le Graët “do not have[ait] more of the legitimacy necessary to administer and represent French football”taking into account in particular its “inappropriate behavior (…) towards women”.

A few hours after her departure, her lawyer, Thierry Marembert, announced a complaint against Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, filed on April 24. He claimed that the minister had “lied” on this report.

The lawyer also pointed out a difference between the summary of the document, published on February 15, which mentioned “words” and SMS, “ambiguous words or writings for some and clearly sexual in nature for others”, and its entirety.