He dismisses the complainants’ accusations and regrets an “insignificant” presumption of innocence. Saïd Chabane, former president and current owner of the Angers football club (L2), denied Monday before the criminal court the sexual assaults of which seven women accuse him. Saïd Chabane, 59, is on trial until Tuesday for sexual assault “committed by a person abusing the authority conferred on him by his position”.
The first complaint was filed in January 2020 by an employee of the SCO in Angers. She denounced events that she said occurred a few months earlier, during a trip to Madrid in which several employees participated. According to the young woman, 25 years old at the time, Saïd Chabane had caressed her thigh during a taxi ride, before taking her hand and placing it on his erect penis. He then, according to her, touched her buttocks and chest during a one-on-one shopping session, to which she “couldn’t and didn’t dare say no”.
He calls a complainant a liar
“It’s not me, it’s not me,” Saïd Chabane repeats at the stand. When the president asked him why, in his opinion, the complainant filed a complaint, he replied: “I don’t know. I don’t know. This is the question I have been asking myself for four years. I don’t know. » “Is (the complainant) a liar? », insists the president a little later. “In that context, yes,” he said.
Six other women, employees of the club and employees of Saïd Chabane’s charcuterie company, filed a complaint immediately, for acts spanning from 2014 to 2019. Four of them told the bar on Monday about the hugs unwanted touching of the chest and buttocks or hands guided towards his crotch. The president read out similar facts denounced by the other complainants.
In front of the press, Marie N., a former hostess who accuses Saïd Chabane of having attacked her one evening at the stadium, explained why she had waited several years and a first complaint before testifying: “I was afraid, I didn’t want to not that my name is associated with this type of affair. If I had been alone, it would have been my word against his. »
“They try to make us see as poor girls asking for money”
Another complainant told the hearing that she had “regretted” filing a complaint several times, given the length and cost of the procedure. “They try to discredit us, to make us see as poor girls asking for money. You don’t ruin four years of your life for that,” said this young woman.
In a dark blue suit, Saïd Chabane spoke at the opening of the trial to denounce a “presumption of innocence that had become insignificant”. “I have been convicted since February 2020 (date of his indictment). I faced a virulent campaign, I was the subject of threatening SMS messages, pressure (…) In today’s society, being a man supposedly in power makes you a designated culprit,” he said. he declared on the stand.
Owner of the Angers SCO since 2011, Saïd Chabane described himself as a man who “started from scratch”, “directive” and “demanding” but who never maintained a relationship of “domination” with his employees.
Entangled in a succession of affairs and a catastrophic sporting situation, Saïd Chabane gave up his place as president of the club to his son Romain in March. Arriving at the head of the club and in its capital in 2011, he was one of the main players in the spectacular recovery of the SCO on a sporting level during the following years, including a return to L1 in 2015. Relegated at the end of the 2022-2023 season, the SCO has raised the bar. At the top of Ligue 2 after 18 days, he is one of the favorites for promotion to Ligue 1 in May.
