The requisitions have been made. Three years in prison, including one with a simple suspended sentence, were requested this Tuesday before the Angers Criminal Court against Saïd Chabane, former president and current owner of the Angers football club (L2), that seven women accused of sexual assault.
“Each described intolerable actions,” committed by the ex-president of the club, denounced prosecutor Eric Bouillard, who also requested a deferred committal warrant. The magistrate also pointed out the “demolition enterprise” carried out by the defense.
Since the complaint was filed, “I was told that I was corrupt, a liar, that I was looking for light,” the first woman to have accused Saïd Chabane, in January 2020, told the court on Tuesday. no complaint against his employer, while being in office, for pleasure. I filed a complaint to denounce unacceptable, intolerable, disrespectful behavior,” she added.
The businessman denies all the charges against him
Six other women, employees of the Angers SCO or Saïd Chabane’s charcuterie company, filed a complaint immediately, for acts spanning from 2014 to 2019. “Here you have a man who does not consider the women as his equal. Here you have a man who, like others, thinks that everything is permitted to him with women,” argued Me Guillaume Sergent, lawyer for the civil party, during his pleading, in a courtroom that remained packed during the two days of trial.
The defendant, tried for sexual assault “committed by a person abusing the authority conferred on him by his position”, denies all of the facts with which he is accused. During the trial, five complainants told the witness box of unwanted hugs, touching of the chest and buttocks or hands guided towards the defendant’s crotch.
Monday morning, Saïd Chabane denounced at the bar an “insignificant presumption of innocence” in this case, saying he was “convicted since February 2020”, the date of his indictment. Owner of the Angers SCO since 2011, Saïd Chabane described himself as a man who “started from scratch”, a “directive” and “demanding” boss but who never maintained a relationship of “domination” with his employees. The trial is due to end this Tuesday evening.