They would have liked to see him again, even in a court room: six relatives of the former French international Paul Pogba, including his older brother, have been tried by the Paris Criminal Court since Tuesday, despite the absence of their accuser at the trial.
The six defendants appear for their involvement in what has been described as the “Pogba affair”: blackmail, pressure and even kidnapping at gunpoint with the aim of extracting 13 million euros from midfielder, who played at the material time at Manchester United then at Juventus Turin.
“The court is not granting the referral requests,” the president of the court announced early in the evening, confirming that the trial would take place as planned even in the absence of Paul Pogba, civil party.
A little earlier the defense lawyers had denounced the absence of the player. “The confrontation in public hearing allows everyone to assess the credibility of each other. The presence of Paul Pogba is essential,” declared Me Yves Leberquier, counsel for one of the six defendants.
But the court ruled in favor of the public prosecutor who had replied that “no text requires a civil party to come to his trial”.
In the front row sit five defendants, childhood friends of Paul Pogba and one of his older brothers Mathias. Behind him, in traditional black and green clothing, Pogba's mother. In the box, a sixth man, the only one to be in pre-trial detention.
The affair came to light at the end of August 2022 with a video posted on social networks by Mathias Pogba in which he promised revelations about his younger brother. “All of this risks being explosive,” Mathias declared, without further details.
This enigmatic video was followed by another in which the big brother accused Paul of having harassed Kylian Mbappé, his teammate with the Blues.
“The recent statements by Mathias Pogba (…) add to threats and extortion attempts by an organized gang against Paul Pogba,” Paul Pogba’s lawyers and his agent Rafaela Pimenta then said.
The international, who had just re-signed for Juventus after six seasons at Manchester United, had actually filed a complaint in Italy in July 2022 before being heard in France a few days later.
To investigators, he declared having been “trapped by childhood friends” on the night of March 19 to 20, 2022, at a time when he was still living in Manchester.
These relatives would have kidnapped and sequestered him under the threat of two hooded men armed with assault rifles, to demand 13 million euros from him for “service rendered”, accusing him of not having helped them financially since he had become a professional player. Of the 13 million, he claims to have paid the sum of 100,000 euros.
During his hearings, Paul Pogba also recounted having suffered pressure from these friends at the Blues training center in Clairefontaine, in Manchester where he had a residence, and at the club's training center in Turin.
He also said he paid a bill of 57,227 euros in the Adidas store on the Champs-Elysées.
– “A relationship of brothers” –
Those close to the 2018 world champion firmly denied these accusations. In their defense, all claimed to have themselves been victims of violence and pressure from the hooded robbers who were never identified.
During the trial, the five childhood friends will be tried for extortion, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy.
Mathias Pogba, absent the night of the kidnapping, is suspected of having then “committed pressure against his brother Paul and his family in order to ensure payment of the sum of 13 million euros”.
He will be tried for attempted extortion and criminal conspiracy.
During a hearing before the investigating judge a few months ago, Paul Pogba recounted how money had separated the two brothers, establishing Mathias' financial dependence on him: “I wanted us to resume a relationship of brothers and not a financial relationship”.
The defendants risk between five and ten years in prison.
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