Human Rights Watch has questioned the court of arbitration for sport’s decision to overturn Fifa’s lifetime ban on the former president of the Haitian Football Federation Yves Jean-Bart and claimed that some alleged victims were “threatened into silence”.
Jean-Bart – known as “Dadou” – was banned by Fifa’s ethics committee in November 2020 for alleged harassment and sexual abuse against female footballers after a series of investigations in the Guardian. The 75-year-old appealed to Cas in January 2021 and the case was heard by an arbitral panel at the end of March 2022.
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A decision had been expected last summer but Cas finally announced on Tuesday that it was lifting Jean-Bart’s ban after the panel “unanimously noted the lack of coherence and inaccuracies in the statements of victims and witnesses presented by Fifa”. It also criticised HRW and the international players’ union Fifpro for failing to “corroborate or confirm” evidence they had presented to Fifa.
“In conclusion, the arbitral panel considers that the evidence brought against Yves Jean-Bart regarding the accusations of sexual abuse, are inconsistent, vague and contradictory and that, consequently, they are not sufficient to establish a violation of Articles 23 and 25 of the Fifa Code of Ethics,” said the Cas statement. “The panel therefore decides to allow the appeal and cancel the penalties set out in the contested decision.”
A spokesperson for Fifa has yet to respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. Minky Worden from HRW claimed the Cas investigation had been tainted by interference from Jean-Bart and that several alleged victims refused to give evidence at all because they feared for their safety. She claimed one witness was sent a message that told him his coffin “was prepared”.
“Fifa and Cas did not create the conditions where it was safe for whistleblowers and survivors to come forward with evidence of horrific abuses,” Worden said. “They were threatened into silence.
“HRW has seen messages from the henchmen of Dadou threatening witnesses that said: ‘We have your coffins prepared.’ So Cas has set up a system where Jean-Bart was able to successfully threaten witnesses or alleged victims to withdraw and not give evidence against him because he threatened to kill them or their families. That is not justice and it is an utter failure of the survivors who came forward to give evidence in this case.”
It is unclear whether Fifa will contest the decision, with Cas usually permitting appeals “on a very limited number of grounds” including the “violation of elementary procedural rules (eg violation of the right to a fair hearing)”.
It is understood that Jean-Bart is under investigation in the United States for alleged human trafficking offences and that the public prosecutor in Haiti has not concluded its investigation into alleged sexual harassment during his time as FHF president. “This puts pressure on the Haitian justice system to act and also the US and other authorities where he may have abused players in their jurisdictions,” Worden said.
Jean-Bart did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment but said in a statement that he was “grateful to God, my family, legal counsel, and all of those stood with me through this difficult process while I defended myself against these baseless, maliciously motivated smears.”
On Wednesday Cas is scheduled to hear the appeal from the FHF’s former head of referees Rosnick Grant, after Fifa’s ethics committee banned him for life in May 2021 after finding him guilty of committing acts of sexual harassment and abuse.
However, it is understood that the timing of the Jean-Bart announcement has caused major concerns to some of the alleged victims and witnesses due to give evidence. “They don’t think they can trust Cas any more,” said one source who did not want to be named.
