2023-04-25 19:22:44
The legal saga continues for Nicolas Sarkozy. Anticor filed a complaint on April 7 once morest the former head of state. The complaint, revealed by the daily The worldtargets the former president, but also his former right-hand man Claude Guéant, François de La Brosse as well as the former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Ben Jassem al-Thani for influence peddling, corruption of a foreign public official, association of criminals, illegal financing of electoral campaign and concealment of this offense, concerning the attribution of the World Cup to Qatar.
To support its complaint, Anticor relies on an article by Mediapart, published in September, reporting on the free collaboration of François de La Brosse, via his company ZNZ Group, in the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, then as a communication advisor at the Elysée. In 2011, ZNZ encountering financial difficulties, François de La Brosse, who estimated at nearly 2.8 million euros for unbilled services, solicited the former head of state then Claude Guéant.
A file opened since 2019
Still according to Mediapart, which cites an investigation document, ZNZ and the Qatari company Q.Media then signed a memorandum of understanding in the summer of 2011 for the creation of a web TV, “Enjoy Qatar”. Q.Media, belonging to the son-in-law of Hamad Ben Jassem al-Thani, would have paid 600,000 euros to ZNZ. In its complaint, consulted by AFP, Anticor also mentions other invoices and Q.Media’s stake in the French company.
“Are we here faced with an offer of a corrupting pact which would have been made with the specific and sole objective of thanking François de La Brosse for his services, or rather facing the partial realization of a broader corrupting pact which would have been concluded previously between Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatar? asks the association.
A “give and take market”?
“Claude Guéant has not been the subject of any questioning on this old subject for which there is nothing to reproach him for”, reacted his lawyer, Me Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi. Anticor would like these elements to be attached to the judicial information on the conditions under which, on December 2, 2010, Fifa awarded Qatar the organization of the World Cup, which was played last fall in the emirate. . Anticor is a civil party in this case.
In this file, opened since 2019, the investigators are trying to determine whether the designation of the Gulf country gave rise to “a give-and-take deal” concluded during a lunch at the Élysée Palace on November 23, 2010 bringing together Nicolas Sarkozy, Michel Platini, then UEFA president, Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani, crown prince of Qatar who became emir in 2013, and former prime minister al-Thani.
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