The Paris criminal court sentenced Mathias Pogba on Thursday, December 19 to three years in prison, two of which were suspended, at the trial of the resounding kidnapping case of his brother, French footballer Paul Pogba.
This one-year sentence will be placed under an electronic bracelet. He also condemned the brother of Paul Pogba to a fine of 20,000 euros for having participated in the extortion attempt in 2022 of 13 million euros targeting his brother and for having exerted numerous pressure on the French international, his family and his professional relations with a view to get this payment.
The five other defendants, childhood friends or acquaintances of Paul Pogba, were found guilty of extortion, kidnapping and detention as well as participation in a criminal association and sentenced to sentences of up to eight years in prison, to fines of 20 to 40,000 euros. Only the charge of kidnapping was not retained as suggested by the public prosecutor.
Roushdane K., considered the mastermind of the affair, the only one to appear detained, was sentenced to eight years in prison as requested by the prosecution. Adama C. was sentenced to five years in prison with a committal warrant.
One of the footballer’s closest childhood friends left the room handcuffed and escorted by police officers. Mamadou M. received five years of imprisonment, 12 months of which were suspended. Finally, Machikour K. and Boubacar C. were sentenced to four years in prison, two years suspended for one and three years suspended for the other.
Towards an appeal of sentences
This Pogba affair started on the night of March 19 to 20, 2022 with an ambush set up against Paul Pogba in an apartment in Montévrain (Seine-et-Marne). Two hooded men held him up at gunpoint with the aim of extracting 13 million euros from the midfielder, who was playing at Manchester United and then Juventus Turin at the time.
The affair was revealed after the broadcast of videos on social networks in August 2022 by Mathias Pogba in which the latter notably accused Paul of having marabouted Kylian Mbappé. Most defense lawyers, furious at the sentences they consider too harsh, have announced their intention to appeal.
