Egyptian Olympic wrestler arrested on suspicion of sexual assault for ‘groping a woman from behind outside a cafe’ in the early hours of the morning in Paris
- He was reportedly arrested by police while drunk on a highway in Paris
- A woman filed a complaint with the Egyptian Olympic team, informed of the events
- Mohamed Elsayed, 26, allegedly put his hands on a woman’s buttocks outside a cafe
French police arrested an Egyptian wrestler competing in the Olympic Games on Friday morning after allegedly groping a woman in a bar, prosecutors said.
Authorities arrested 26-year-old Mohamed Elsayed at around 5 a.m. outside a cafe in the French capital’s 13th arrondissement after he was accused of “putting his hand on the buttocks of a female customer,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
Elsayed, who won bronze at the Tokyo Games, lost to Hasrat Jafarov of Azerbaijan in the 67kg Greco-Roman wrestling on Wednesday. His opponent eventually won bronze.
A compatriot of the same name won a bronze medal in epee fencing at the Olympic Games in Paris.
It was not immediately clear whether the wrestler had since been released.
The man is now known as Mohamed Elsayed, who took part in the Games on Thursday
The incident took place in the early morning hours during the Olympic Games in Paris
According to the French newspaper Le Parisien, he was “dead drunk” and was reportedly arrested at the 13th arrondissement police station.
Egypt, which has so far won only one medal at the Paris Games (in fencing), is said to have informed its athletes that one of their teammates has been arrested in France.
He was reportedly arrested on the highway.
This is not the first report of sexual abuse surrounding the Games. The father of Croatian judo champion Barbara Matic was also reportedly arrested in Paris for alleged assault on a volunteer.
Matic shone on Wednesday when she won gold in the women’s 70kg judo category and was overjoyed with her incredible victory over German Olympic debutant Miriam Butkereit.
Her stunning victory marked Croatia’s first gold medal at the Paris Olympics, but this victory was later overshadowed when a volunteer responsible for seating spectators filed a complaint with the police about Matic’s father’s actions.
Police investigating the alleged sexual assault took the father into custody last Thursday, where he was questioned about the events related to the complainants’ claims, as reported by BFM TV.
He was reportedly arrested in the early hours of Friday morning after being accused of putting his hands on a woman’s buttocks
The father of Olympic gold medalist Miriam Butkereit has also reportedly been arrested after being accused of sexual abuse
It is alleged that the Olympic gold medallist’s father forcibly kissed the volunteer after Matic won the quarter-final, nearly putting her on the podium.
The 24-year-old volunteer was working on the grounds of the Arena Champs-de-Mars and says she tried to reject the promotion of the judoka’s father.
They then decided to report the incident to the police, which revealed that “the father of a champion had kissed her on the mouth after an Olympic event,” a source at BFM said.
According to Le Parisien, the investigation has now been closed and dismissed.