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KABUL (SW) – Keramuddin Karim, the deposed head of the Afghanistan Football Federation, has rejected allegations he sexually and physically abused members of the women’s national team.
An investigation into the claims is ongoing, but in an interview with AFP he was confident his name would be cleared. “I strongly deny these allegations,” said Karim, who has been suspended from his position as president of the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) pending the outcome of the investigation.
He suggested his accusers may have invented the claims to help their applications for asylum in Europe. Karim has been accused of punching, raping and threatening female players, including holding a gun to one’s head, in allegations first reported by Britain’s Guardian newspaper in November.
“This is a conspiracy. There has been no evidence or proof provided, only a number of unidentified voices, anonymous identities have made the allegations.” Karim said his accusers might be using the serious allegations to “seek asylum in Europe”.
Karim told AFP he was cooperating with investigators from Afghanistan’s attorney general’s office, which on Friday slapped a flight ban on five federation officials after suspending them from their positions. Football’s world governing body FIFA has also suspended Karim for 90 days. “The attorney general will investigate to find out if there is any truth to the claims,” Karim said. “I personally am not aware of such things taking place.”
One player has accused Karim of holding a gun to her head after punching her in the face and raping her in a secret bedroom near his office, the Guardian reported Friday. Another accused him of threatening to cut out her tongue after she escaped his unwanted sexual advances.
The Guardian previously cited what it described as senior figures associated with the women’s team who said the abuse had taken place in Afghanistan, including at the AFF headquarters, and at a training camp in Jordan last February.
“As a father and a husband I have been affected (by the allegations), it has been painful,” said Karim, who has two wives.
ENDS
