The President of the Gabonese Football Federation (Fégafoot), Pierre-Alain Mounguengui, has been arrested and indicted of “failure to report crimes of pedophilia” in a case of alleged sexual assault of hundreds of children by football coaches and officials under his watch, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Mounguengui, who was arrested earlier in the day has been placed under a committal order in the capital Libreville pending when he will be charged to court.
According to the lawyer, Charles-Henri Gey, Mounguengui, 64, who was re-elected president of the Fégafoot at the end of April, “has been indicted for not denouncing crimes of paedophilia, which he disputes.
“He has been placed under a committal order and we have requested his provisional release. Mr Mounguengui is accused of having covered up the alleged assaults committed by national team and club coaches and officials.
“This case is only a pretext for Pierre-Alain Mounguengui to be no longer president of the Fégafoot,” Gey said.
The scandal, which was first revealed by authoritative British daily, The Guardian, in December 2021 after an intensive underground investigation, broke when the then coach of the country’s U-17 national team, Patrick Assoumou Eyi, was jailed after being accused of hundreds of rapes and sexual assaults on children for whom he was responsible in his duties for several years.
Since Assoumou’s Eyi arrest and conviction, two club coaches, Orphée Mickala and Triphel Mabicka, have also been indicted on the same charges and jailed with all three men facing up to 30 years in prison.
While world football body, Fifa, opened a disciplinary investigation on Tuesday targeting the three coaches accused of pedophilia as well as Mounguengui, Gabon’s Sports Minister, Franck Nguema, confirmed that Assoumou Eyi “allegedly abused hundreds of young boys in the course of his duties.”