“I was used”: Heard on Tuesday at the Pogba trial as the last of the six defendants, his big brother Mathias assured that he had been manipulated. Well-cut goatee, imposing build in a black suit and moccasins on his feet, his family resemblance with former French international Paul Pogba is undeniable.
Absent during the sequestration of Paul Pogba, on the night of March 19 to 20, 2022, he is suspected of having “committed pressure against his brother and against his family in order to ensure payment of the sum of 13 million ‘euros’. In court, the 34-year-old man explained that he knew nothing about the attack of which his younger brother was the victim. In any case until mid-July 2022, when he “by chance” came across the friends of the Juventus Turin player at the gym, in which he occasionally went to train.
He claims not to have been informed of the attack
Roushdane K., one of his co-defendants, takes him aside and tells him everything: the robbery and especially the attacks to which all his childhood friends have been victims since, because of Paul Pogba’s silence and the absence payment of money – burned car, threats, point-blank shooting in the hand.
Mathias Pogba, also a footballer and at the end of his contract with the Belfort club at the time, said he couldn’t believe that his brother didn’t confide in him. He says he then went to Turin accompanied by his friends to speak to his brother, because he believes that the entire family is in danger: “For me, it is a case of emergency. I’m just doing my role as a big brother.”
But he will never see his brother who refuses to see them. It was also on that day that Paul Pogba decided to file a complaint in Italy and denounced the sequestration.
“I was in trouble, and he didn’t do anything”
Mathias Pogba claims to have in turn been attacked, a few days after his return from Turin. “I raised my hands, I was paralyzed,” he told the court. “They told me: ‘Tell your brother to pay, otherwise the next step is your mother’.” The defendant then says he tried once again to contact his brother, without success, which made him angry. “At that moment, I was in the jungle, I was in trouble and he did nothing,” denounces Mathias Pogba, still furious.
It was there that he thought of recording a video to put pressure on his brother with the help, he explains, of Roushdane K. who lent him his apartment, provided the equipment and suggested that a friend write the messages in which Mathias Pogba threatens his brother and accuses him of having harassed Kylian Mbappé. “Are you ashamed of yourself? », asks his lawyer, Me Mbeko Tabula. “Today, yes,” replies Mathias Pogba, “but the latest social networks were my only way out,” he confesses before once again damning Roushdane K.
“I am a soldier, I fight for myself”
For the public prosecutor, the speech of the abandoned and inconsolable brother has difficulty getting through. “I see a lot of intent to harm in your actions and the need to attract sympathy towards you,” one of the prosecutors calls out.
The financial relationship between the two brothers is also discussed. Paul Pogba being absent at the hearing, his statement to the investigators was read at the hearing. The footballer spoke of being saddened by the demands of his big brother, “the most insistent”. Regularly, he “asked me again, asked me again”, affirmed the international.
“This is totally false! », protests Mathias Pogba. “I am a soldier, I fight for myself, I don’t need to ask here and there.” Mathias Pogba is on trial for attempted extortion and criminal conspiracy. He faces up to five years in prison.
The trial will continue on Wednesday with the prosecution’s submissions.
Swiss
