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The fraud process around the “summer fairy tale”, the 2006 World Cup in Germany, has just been prescribed by the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. The next trial is scheduled for September 2020, which has been severely damaged by secret meetings between US Attorney Michael Lauber and FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, and threatens to fail due to Lauber’s troop.
This corruption trial charges Nasser Al Khelaifi, a Qatari billionaire, and another businessman who bribed former FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke years ago in exchange for media rights. Some of these allegations were split earlier in the year because FIFA withdrew its private lawsuit: Previously, it had reached a “friendly settlement” with Al Khelaifi of unknown content.
PSG chief submits another license application
Al Khelaifi has once again filed an application with the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona against representatives of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, as confirmed by his Geneva lawyer, Grégoire Mangeat. Prosecutor Joël Pahud leads the criticized process.
This is complicated because Khelaifi has been a member of UEFA’s executive committee since last year and researcher Pahud’s wife works in UEFA’s legal department. Khelaifi is also the president of the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) football club, which serves the big bucket and employs stars like Neymar Jr. or Kylian Mbappé.
It was only in April that the Federal Criminal Court rejected Al Khelaifi’s first license application, which was filed last year.
This new request is now being triggered by the results of the disciplinary order issued by the supervisory authority AB-BA against the Federal Prosecutor. In this mandate, Michael Lauber is accused of a whole series of violations. So he repeatedly spoke the falsehood and violated his official duties, this in connection with the sinister meetings with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino. None of the four securitized participants, including Lauber press officer André Marty and Infantinos Busenfreund, Valais prosecutor Rinaldo Arnold, were there, allegedly able to recall any of the meetings.
“Organized” violations of the law
Due to such maneuvers, suspects may have some chance of success that they will not be given a fair trial. Attorney Mangeat justifies the new license application for misconduct organized under Lauber’s authority: “The federal prosecutor organized the circumvention of the basic principles of the Code of Criminal Procedure in such a way that it worked at all levels of the institution.” From above, the head of the prosecutor’s office, to individual members of the FIFA task force and leaders of the process.
The billionaire’s lawyer also accused the prosecutor of using “lies or omertà to hide the truth.”
Lauber’s adventurous administration currently provides the suspect with endless material for complaints and is now threatening the corruption process. It is not entirely clear what role the “forgotten” meeting between the federal prosecutor and the FIFA chief played in relation to the proceedings that the federal prosecutor’s office has been carrying out against Qatar Al Khelaifi since March 2017. The meeting « Forgotten »took place on June 16, 2017. Only two weeks earlier, FIFA had become a private plaintiff. Was the meeting secret (also) about this procedure?
A prosecutor involved in the process is even suspected of attending the secret meeting as the “fifth man.” There are people within the prosecution who say that this man was Joël Pahud. This would be particularly fatal because Pahud represents the charges against Valcke and Al Khelaifi.
Special investigator must investigate leak
Al-Khelaifi’s lawyers have started a second trial. They accuse the federal prosecutor of violation of official secrecy in connection with the trial against Al-Khelaifi. Lawyer Mangeat: “We requested that criminal proceedings be initiated in February after discovering that journalists had access to the documents of this criminal process, for the third time since 2018.” Since, of course, the case could not be investigated by the federal prosecutor’s office, the supervisory authority had appointed an extraordinary public prosecutor through the federal prosecutor’s office (AB-BA). “On March 20, 2020, a lawsuit was opened against unknown persons,” says Mangeat. An AB-BA statement was not available in the short term.
All skins swim easily
Federal attorney Michael Lauber is swimming away from the fur. The SP and CVP parties are now openly calling for his resignation. If you don’t go alone, you should be removed from office. The trigger here is the report from the supervisory authority.
Even the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, with whom Lauber had secretly met several times, increases pressure and demands that the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (BA) continue the criminal process against his predecessor, Sepp Blatter. If it does, FIFA is threatened with legal remedies, as a spokesperson said on demand: “FIFA will examine all legal options to ensure that the individuals concerned are held accountable.”
The BA plans to close one of the two preliminary proceedings against Blatter. Although a Swiss police report apparently charged the former FIFA chief. A constellation that has always been unsustainable for experts is increasingly surprising: Blatter has the same lawyer as Lauber. Zurich criminal defense attorney Lorenz Erni defends Blatter in his criminal proceedings with the federal prosecutor. And he advises the federal prosecutor in his legal transactions against his own AB-BA oversight.
The role of lawyer Erni focuses
One expert is convinced that there is a serious conflict of interest here: “To defend Lauber in the supervisory process, Erni had to have a complete view of the files related to the soccer process. In turn, you can use this knowledge to defend Blatter, accused of one of these procedures.
The presumption of innocence applies to all of the above.
