Lawyers of president of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is allegedly implicated in corruption and influence peddling accusations, said that any leaks in connection to the affair are truncated and staged.
Al-Khelaifi’s French lawyers announced on Friday that they have lodged complaints with Paris public prosecutor for breach of the secrecy of the investigation. “We deplore the truncated, staged violation of the professional secret (…) meant solely to falsify reality and put pressure on the justice system and the public opinion,” as per a statement to AFP by Renaud Semerdjian and Francis Szpiner.
The lawyers assured that their client is a “civil party” in the Paris Saint-Germain case and that he is a victim whose dignity and reputation have been tainted. “We have noted, for weeks now, that several media outlets are reporting partial, incomplete information from a case that is still under way.”
Consequently, both lawyers resorted to the public prosecution on January 18.
According to French media, Deputy Hugues, Gérald Darmanin, then minister of public accounts, and his right hand Jérôme Fournel had helped PSG to evade millions of euros in taxes to secure the transfer of Neymar to the club in 2017.
As part of the legal investigation in connection with the PSG, and related to corruption and influence peddling, law enforcement officers conducted a search operation of the French ministry of economy and finance on Monday. Investigations seek to prove whether or not the PSG had benefited from any tax exemption or favor during the transfer of the Brazilian forward from Barcelona.
The suspicions are part of an investigation conducted since September 2022 on influence peddling operations by former communication director at the club Jean-Martial Ribes, aged 57.
As per another investigation, Paris examining judges are looking into accusations of abduction, captivity and torture in Qatar, made by French-Algerian Lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane against “NAK”.