Placed in detention during the investigation for attempted extortion of his brother, Paul Pogba, Mathias Pogba spoke about his daily life in prison during an interview on the Youtube channel Yes Hustle. He says he was insulted and attacked by the other detainees.
He speaks a few days after the announcement of the prosecution's requisitions in the context of the Pogba affair. While the Paris criminal court required three years of suspended prison sentence (including two years with a simple suspended sentence) for having participated in the attempted extortion amounting to 13 million euros targeting his brother, Paul Pogba, Mathias Pogba spoke to the Youtube channel Yes Hustlein an interview broadcast this Wednesday, December 11.
During the investigation aimed at shedding light on the resounding Pogba affair, the former Tours and Belfort striker spent three and a half months in prison in the fall of 2022.
“People are banging in my cell: ‘How could you do this to your brother?’”
“I matured, locked up there in a 9m² room. I became the man I must become,” assures Mathias Pogba, incarcerated in Villepinte prison (Seine-Saint-Denis). “There is not a day when I have not been insulted by all the names that exist. Not a single day. 'Fdp', … everything. They type in my cell: 'how could you do that to your brother?' Knowing that you, you know that you didn't do anything. But the whole planet believes that you are the head of all this and you have to swallow that, every day.
Released from prison two days before Christmas, Mathias Pogba believes that other prisoners could have attacked him. “What if I was jumped? No, I was in solitary confinement. But I think that would have been an option for them. But I was in solitary confinement, thank God. It's a step in my It's crazy what I'm going to say, but sometimes I thank Allah for taking me there. It's crazy. But I say that with pride. As part of a documentary broadcast in June on the L'Equipe channel, Mathias Pogba already confided that he was “scared” during his time in prison.
-“The worst moment of my life”
Despite this extremely difficult period, which he described as “the worst moment of (his) life” in the documentary on the L'Équipe channel, Paul Pogba's older brother was still able to count on great support. “Inside the prison, I received lots of mail, even from people I had seen once in my life. I have always had support,” he concludes on the Youtube channel Yes Hustle.
Mathias Pogba was indicted on charges of extortion by an organized gang and participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing a crime. He was also placed under assisted witness status for the charge of arrest, kidnapping, sequestration or arbitrary detention of a hostage committed by an organized gang to facilitate a crime or misdemeanor followed by release within 7 days.
If the judgment – which must be given on December 19 – follows the prosecutor's requisitions (three years including two years suspended), Mathias Pogba should not return behind bars. A modification of the firm sentence is possible, such as home detention or wearing an electronic bracelet.
