Afghan cyclist abuse allegedly continuing from UCI HQ in Switzerland

Days after the UCI outlined its plans to host the Afghan Ladies’s Highway Biking Championships from its base in Aigle, Switzerland, troubling new allegations of ongoing abuse have come to gentle.

A grievance submitted to the UCI Ethics Fee – seen by CyclingTips – comprises allegations that members of the Afghan Biking Federation proceed to discriminate towards feminine cyclists and members of the Hazara non secular minority. The perpetrators embrace Fazli Ahmad Fazli, who’s hosted in Switzerland by the UCI.

The lengthy, troubling timeline detailed within the grievance stretches again to the UCI-led evacuation of a convoy of Afghan cyclists within the wake of the Taliban’s return to energy in Afghanistan.

That evacuation was seen as a brave humanitarian accomplishment, and – as will be seen within the UCI’s newest plans – is a optimistic PR alternative the organisation continues to attract on.

The evacuation was additionally a centrepiece second of the 2021 UCI Congress, with Fazli Ahmad Fazli – the Afghan Biking Federation’s president since 2019 – being awarded a UCI Benefit for his “brave dedication to the event of biking, notably girls’s biking, in a rustic the place preventing for this trigger is a threat” and “dedicat[ing] his life” to the trigger. Fazli – together with lots of these within the convoy – obtained Swiss visas and lodging.  

However, a number of sources allege, all was not because it appeared.

A brutal backstory

The glittering PR second was quickly undermined by revelations – first reported by CyclingTips – that lower than a dozen cyclists had been among the many 150-odd folks evacuated. Based on a number of sources, Fazli manipulated the lists to incorporate relations, associates and enterprise associates – whereas concurrently excluding legit cyclists and discriminating towards the Hazara minority. [Fazli denies these allegations.]

Since CyclingTips broke that story in November 2021, unbiased experiences from CyclingNews and a significant Swiss present affairs TV present, Rundschau, have come to related conclusions. The UCI responded with a declare that an unspecified “ill-intentioned particular person has been making an attempt to denigrate all that has been achieved”.

CyclingTips contacted the UCI to make clear that six unbiased sources had confirmed particulars for the unique story. We additionally voiced considerations for the security of sources, providing supporting proof of threats towards cyclists. The UCI didn’t reply.

Quickly after, considered one of CyclingTips’ sources, Amin – who was in hiding in Pakistan – says he was kidnapped and detained for 4 days, throughout which he was repeatedly doused in chilly water, denied meals and water, and crushed. He believes that this was retribution, ordered by Fazli, for talking out. Additional leaked WhatsApp voice messages revealed a person recognized as Fazli threatening or ridiculing members of the Afghan biking group, warning them to not converse to reporters, and claiming that he was engaged on future evacuation convoys that by no means got here. 

CyclingTips revealed many of those particulars in a follow-up characteristic in February 2022, and a podcast later that month. Regardless of a number of requests for remark, the UCI has offered no response since final November – no acknowledgement of the a number of critical abuse allegations, perpetrated by the UCI Benefit-awarded president of the Afghan Biking Federation, who continues to control in absentia from the headquarters of the UCI itself.

The place are we now?

Seven months after the allegations had been first revealed, the UCI seems to be persevering with to again Fazli. Certainly, CyclingTips understands that UCI President David Lappartient himself has actively sought to undermine and criticise any reporting into Fazli’s alleged misdeeds.

In the meantime, the UCI has pushed ahead with a ‘Biking Integrity’ initiative, “as a result of each member of the biking group, whether or not a rider or not, should profit from a protected setting, free from harassment or different abuse, through which they really feel revered.”

Towards the backdrop of months of obvious inaction, and within the context of additional claims of abuse, a grievance incorporating testimony of greater than a dozen accusers has been lodged with the UCI Ethics Fee – an unbiased physique that officiates on violations of the UCI’s Code of Ethics. This doc – seen by CyclingTips – presents the abuse allegations already uncovered by our reporting, but in addition alleges persevering with threats towards Afghan cyclists. 

This contains menacing messages purportedly despatched by Fazli to these talking out towards him. “Remember that I’ve lots of associates in Afghanistan. In order for you your self and your loved ones to not be harmed, keep calm and don’t increase your voice,” reads one. “I’m going to search out you quickly, and know this … I received’t keep calm till I see your useless our bodies,” reads one other.

Based on the Ethics Fee grievance, quite a few cyclists allege that Fazli himself has Taliban connections which put the cyclists at actual threat of hurt. Since our final report, a number of Afghan cyclists have been captured and crushed by the Taliban, who had been in a single case searching for data on the whereabouts of a critic of Fazli. CyclingTips has additionally seen messages, allegedly from Fazli, claiming that “the folks of the Emirate [ed. Taliban] are my very own.”

Worse, ongoing alleged abuse isn’t simply taking place from Switzerland, however inside it – on the UCI’s World Biking Centre, which homes the Afghan evacuees.

The Ethics Fee grievance states that three feminine members of the cohort in Switzerland have expressed considerations for his or her security. One bicycle owner alleges that Fazli has verbally abused her and two Hazara teammates, referring to them as ‘canine’, ‘infidel’ and ‘whore’, requiring them to put on hijabs, and imposing curfews. Afraid of continued deterioration, they declare to have sought help from immigration charities in Switzerland. One of many feminine cyclists alleges that when she raised her considerations with representatives of the UCI, they responded that if she was sad, she ought to return to Afghanistan.

In the meantime, as just lately as late April, Fazli was concerned in media occasions on the UCI, together with a operate highlighting the UCI’s efforts to deal with and help refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine. In an April 22 press launch, Fazli is pictured standing between IOC president Thomas Bach and Swiss politician, Philippe Leuba. 

On that day, Lappartient underlined the UCI’s dedication to the “wellbeing of your entire biking household” and the necessity to put the organisation’s services on the disposal of athletes “who had been in peril in their very own nations. It is crucial that these younger cyclists really feel supported, and I’m certain that the discussions and actions that passed off right here in Aigle will reinforce their feeling of safety.”

The timeline for the UCI Ethics Fee to ship a discovering will not be identified. For the thirteenth consecutive time since final November, the UCI didn’t reply to a request for remark.