(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Namibian boxer Junias Jonas has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to sexually assault a woman in the Olympic Village. The 22-year-old boxer was arrested by Brazilian Police on Friday and was unbelievably the second Olympian boxer arrested for the charge that day.
Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada was also arrested for the same charges.
It seems almost incredible that athletes within the same sport, from the same continent, would be arrested for crimes so egregious within hours of the Opening Ceremony.
Who Is Junias Jonas?
Junias Jonas is a welterweight boxer representing Namibia, who was actually chosen to be the country’s flag-bearer in the Opening Ceremony. Junias was scheduled to fight France’s Hassan Amzile this Thursday. It’s not expected that he’ll compete in the Olympics.
Jonas won the silver medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Men’s Light Welterweight.
What Happened?
Allegedly, Jonas is being accused of trying to grab and kiss a woman at the athletes’ village. The woman also complains that he offered her money for sex.
Detective Rodrigo Amorim of Rio’s Police had this to say. “I can confirm that a Namibian athlete named Jonas Junias Jonas was arrested this morning on suspicion of attempted rape of a female in the Olympic Village. The incident occurred last week. The accused has been detained in Recreio police station and unless he gets habeas corpus he will be transferred to prison in Bangu later today.”
Brazil’s Criminal Code states that a crime of rape occurs if offender forces the victim to have sexual intercourse, to practice lewd acts, or forces the victim into performing a sexual act. Pretty much anything sexual performed without consent is considered rape.
Jonas was taken to Recreio police station, and will be transferred to the high security prison of Bangu by the end of the day if he hasn’t been bailed out yet. Both the IOC and the International Boxing Association are deferring to Brazilian law here.
“Brazilian law needs to be respected and this is something that we have to agree on,” said Mario Andrada, a spokesman for the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, to USA Today. “What we need to do is make sure that all the legal procedures are being followed and we understand that they have.”
**I’m not someone who’s regularly caught wearing a tinfoil hat or talking about chemtrails, but boxing’s governing body, the International Boxing Association (AIBA), is horribly and amazingly corrupt. Read this amazing piece by Deadspin (RIP) on corruption in the last Olympics. It’s literally disgraceful.
So that being said, it would not surprise me if it was discovered that there was something fishier going on, than these two boxers trying to rape two women. Or maybe they’re just scummy pieces of trash who thought they could get away with it in Rio. We’ll have to wait and see.**
