French justice is incompetent to prosecute on suspicion of corruption targeting the boss of PSG Nasser Al-Khelaïfi around the candidacies for the World Athletics Championships (2017 and 2019), according to a judgment of the Court of Cassation.
Consequence of this decision, the nature of which is final: the indictment for active corruption of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi, pronounced on May 23, 2019, is canceled. “ I am delighted with this decision which is in accordance with the law and I recall that Nasser Al-Khelaïfi has always denied having committed the slightest offense in this case. Reacted to AFP Me Francis Szpiner, lawyer for Mr. Al-Khelaïfi with Me Renaud Semerdjian.
Meeting with Papa Massata Diack
The highest court of the judiciary found that there was no “link of connection” between alleged acts of corruption committed in France and abroad.
The suspicions relate to two payments totaling $3.5 million, made in the fall of 2011 by the company Oryx Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) – headed by Khalid Al-Khelaïfi, Nasser’s brother – for the benefit of a sports marketing company headed by Papa Massata Diack, son of the former president of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), Lamine Diack.
Papa Massata Diackdubbed ‘PMD’ in the media, has long handled the IAAF’s marketing rights file.
Two million dollars transferred
The investigating judges and the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal relied on a meeting at the Hotel Negresco in Nice, therefore on French territory, and a transfer of two million dollars made on an account in France, to justify the jurisdiction of the French courts to carry out investigations into these suspicions.
Qatar would have received in return the support of the former big boss of athletics Lamine Diack to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships, organized by the IAAF, and the 2020 Olympics. death of Lamine Diack in December 2021 extinguished the criminal proceedings against him.
(With AFP)