French handball player Benoît Kounkoud accused of attempted rape after the Blues’ victory at the Euro – Libération

Sexual violence fileThe 26-year-old player was taken into police custody during the night from Monday to Tuesday. Drunk at the time of the events, he allegedly attempted to rape a woman in a Parisian nightclub.

The facts would have taken place just a few hours after the reception of the French team at the Elysée by Emmanuel Macron. The handball player just crowned European champion, Benoît Kounkoud, was taken into police custody during the night from Monday to Tuesday, suspected of attempted rape. The 26-year-old player, drunk, allegedly tried to rape a woman in a nightclub in the Champs-Elysées district that same night. He was placed in police custody in the premises of the 1st judicial police district (DPJ) and an investigation was opened, AFP learned from a source close to the case. It was not possible, this Wednesday morning, to know whether his police custody was still in progress, nor Benoît Kounkoud’s position on the facts.

According to RMC-BFMTV, it was a security guard from the establishment who stopped the player, before keeping him there until the arrival of the BAC police officers, who arrested the handball player. “A woman born in March 2003 accuses him of attempted rape, during an alcoholic evening in a nightclub in the 8th arrondissement,” added the prosecution.

“Zero tolerance”

After their victory against Denmark on Sunday in Cologne (Germany), the French handball players returned to France on Monday and were received by Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée for a ceremony during which the President praised the “lesson in commitment sporting and mental” of Guillaume Gille’s men. Former Paris Saint-Germain player, Benoît Kounkoud now plays for the Polish club Kielce. During the Euro handball, the right winger was called in as reinforcements due to uncertainties about the physical state of Yanis Lenne at the start of the competition.

In a press release published this Wednesday late morning, the French Handball Federation said it would “remain attentive to the follow-up that will be given by the judicial authorities”. “In line with its policy of zero tolerance that it has advocated on the subject for several years”, the body “reaffirms its determination to fight against all forms of violence and intends to recall that it severely condemns such acts, when ‘they are established and regardless of the person implicated’.

Updated: at 11:08 a.m., with the addition of the reaction of the French Handball Federation.