The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, was indicted for defamation against the former French football boss Noël Le Graët

The indictment, which dates back to December 2023, was confirmed on Thursday by the general prosecutor’s office of the Court of Cassation.

The Minister of Sports, Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, was indicted in December in the investigation of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) after the defamation complaint by Noël Le Graët, we learned AFP Thursday March 14 by the general prosecutor’s office of the Court of Cassation.

A judicial investigation has been open to the CJR, the only jurisdiction authorized to judge ministers in the exercise of their functions, since June 21 to examine the complaint of the former boss of French football, who criticizes the minister for comments made in February 2023 on his management of the French Football Federation.

“Amélie Oudéa-Castera was informed of this indictment at the end of last year and took note of it with calmness”reacted the entourage of the Minister of Sports to the Sports department of Radio France. “This usual procedure corresponds to the recognition by the Court of Justice of the Republic of the material existence of the comments attributed to him, but in no way prejudges their reprehensible nature”, specifies this same source. The minister “at the disposal of justice to provide all the necessary elements”.

“Behavioral deviations”

After eleven years of reign, Noël Le Graët left the head of the French Football Federation at the end of February 2023 after several stormy months, weakened by clumsy statements about the icon Zinédine Zidane and by testimonies from women attributing inappropriate behavior to him. . Two weeks earlier, an audit report established by the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) and commissioned by the Ministry of Sports had been revealed. A summary made public by the executive pointed out “behavior deviations (…) incompatible with the exercise of functions and the requirement of exemplarity attached to it”.

A few hours after this departure from the FFF, Noël Le Graët’s lawyer, Thierry Marembert, had announced a defamation complaint against Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who was then already Minister of Sports, accusing her of having “lied” on the IGESR report and highlighting a difference between the summary of the document published on February 15, which mentioned “words” and text messages, “words or writings that are ambiguous for some and of a clearly sexual nature for others”and its entirety.