Proceedings for rape accusations against ÖFB players suspended



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The accused national player had denied the accusations. His defense attorney, Kurt Jelinek, has been informed that the process has ended. “I confirmed that the Salzburg Prosecutor’s Office, after carefully examining the facts of the matter, stopped all accusations against my clients,” Jelinek told the APA on Monday. He did not provide further details.

26 years reported national players

According to the complaint of the 26-year-old from Salzburg, the national footballer allegedly raped her on the night of January 4, 2020 in an apartment in Salzburg that contained several people. As a result, a preliminary investigation was launched against the footballer on suspicion of rape.

The athlete’s defense attorney had issued an initial statement to the APA on January 9. “My client strongly rejects the serious allegation,” Jelinek said. There are major contradictions, what happened in the apartment. “I am convinced that my client is innocent.”

ÖFB with opinion

The Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) also issued a statement at the time. “The player has actively informed the ÖFB about the accusations made against him and has rejected them,” he said. “We are confident that the allegations will soon prove unfounded.”

Prosecutor: “No comment”

The 26-year-old’s lawyer, Franz Essl, said in an APA interview in March that the woman had “credibly and realistically described the abuse she had experienced” during judicial questioning. Your client is in psychotherapeutic treatment. “They have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep,” said the Salzburg lawyer. Essl said today, in response to a request from the APA, that it will request the reasons for the termination of the proceeding and then fight the prosecution’s termination order with a continuation request to the Salzburg Regional Court.

No biological traces of the suspect were found during an investigation into the alleged victim. A spokesman for the Public Ministry said today in response to a request from the APA that the Public Ministry does not currently comment on the closure of the process because it cannot currently be assumed with certainty that all parties involved have already had knowledge of the termination of the process.

Continuation of additional procedures

A few days after the rape accusation emerged in January, the police received a complaint from a 29-year-old Salzburg woman. According to her statements, the soccer player is said to have attempted intercourse in her sleep in the winter of 2006/2007. She was also drunk at the time. The incident is said to have occurred after a visit to a local restaurant at the defendant’s home at the time. The Prosecutor’s Office investigated the attempted sexual abuse of a defenseless or mentally disabled person. These procedures were also suspended.

(For reasons of media law, we do not name the player in question.)

(Those: APA)

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