Will Paul Pogba attend the trial of five of his relatives and his older brother, for extortion of which he was the victim? The footballer's entourage talks to the Monde the vagueness of his presence, during this judicial meeting which takes place from Tuesday November 26 to Tuesday December 3, before the 16e chamber of the Paris criminal court.
The 31-year-old French international player, suspended for doping, is at the heart of a highly publicized trial. His sporting horizons have recently brightened. While his contract is about to be terminated by Juventus Turin, leaving him free to engage elsewhere, he was authorized, following a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport rendered on October 4, to resume the official competition and thus the thread of his career in March 2025.
In Paris, his five relatives and childhood friends will appear for extortion, attempted extortion, kidnapping and sequestration, and criminal association. Mathias Pogba, a 34-year-old former footballer with a modest career, will be tried for attempted extortion and criminal conspiracy. Placed in police custody in September 2022, after the complaint of his brother Paul in Italy in July 2022, and the hearing of the latter by investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime, responsible for the investigation called Penalty, Mathias Pogba was then indicted and placed in pre-trial detention, before being released in December 2022.
“Violence and constraints”
In his 44-page referral order, the investigating magistrate returns to this night of March 19 to 20, 2022, on the sidelines of a gathering with the French team in Clairefontaine (Yvelines), during which Paul Pogba was led by friends from his neighborhood to an apartment in Montévrain (Seine-et-Marne). While the Blues star was forced to turn off his phone on the spot, two hooded men, wearing bulletproof vests and heavily armed, appeared, “introduced” by his childhood friend Roushdane K., and take aim at the player.
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“Not identified in procedure”the two individuals ordered Paul Pogba to pay them 13 million euros, including 3 in cash, “in return for protection” of a “small criminal group which would have unwittingly ensured its protection”. Roushdane K. indicates “having guaranteed payment”.
According to the elements of the investigation, which “established the existence of violence and coercion” aiming to obtain payment of the 13 million euros, the player asked, on April 19, 2022, his financial advisor to transfer 12.9 million euros to his account in Dubai, in order to make a transfer to the account of a relative, Adama C., in the emirate. Before withdrawing, his financial advisor having “warned” et “questioned about the amount of the operation”.
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