Anticorruption group Anticor confirmed on Tuesday that it filed a complaint on April 7 against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, his ex-right-hand man Claude Guéant and recruiter François de La Brosse on suspicion of the existence of a corruption pact linked to the award the World Cup to Qatar.
• Also read: Bribes paid to Qatar and Russia to award the World Cup
• Also read: International competitions: the straw that makes the cup overflow
The complaint, published by French daily Le Monde, also targets former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Ben Jassem al-Thani on charges of influence trading, bribery of a foreign official, criminal organization, illegal campaign financing and concealment of these offences.
To substantiate its complaint, Anticor relies on an article published in September by the information site Mediapart, which reports on the freelance work of François de La Brosse through his company ZNZ Group in the presidential campaign won by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 at the time as a communications consultant in the Élysée .
When ZNZ ran into financial difficulties in 2011, Mr de La Brosse, who estimated the unbilled services at nearly €2.8 million, approached the former head of state and then Mr Guéant.
According to Mediapart, which refers to an investigation document, ZNZ and the Qatari company Q.Media then signed a declaration of intent in the summer of 2011 to create a web TV, “Enjoy Qatar”. Q.Media, owned by Mr al-Thani’s son-in-law, allegedly paid ZNZ €600,000.
In its complaint, consulted by AFP, Anticor also mentions other bills and Q.Media’s stake in the French company.
“Are we faced here with an offer of a corruption pact that would have been made with the specific and sole aim of thanking François de La Brosse for his services, or are we faced with the partial realization of a broader corruption pact that would have been concluded? before between Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatar?” asks the association.
“Claude Guéant was not consulted on this old issue for which he is not to blame,” responded his lawyer, Me Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi.
Anticor would like these elements to be attached to the judicial information on the conditions under which FIFA, on December 2, 2010, awarded Qatar the organization of the World Cup that was held in the emirate last autumn. In this case, Anticor is a civil party.
In this file, open since 2019, investigators are trying to determine whether the Gulf state’s appointment led to a “give and take” that took place during a lunch at the Élysée Palace on April 23. Sarkozy, former footballer Michel Platini, then President of UEFA, and Mr al-Thani, Crown Prince of Qatar who became Emir in 2013.
For the federation’s lawyer, Me Jean-Baptiste Soufron, “it was important that Anticor take up this case, on the one hand because of its possible connection with the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar, but also because of possible interference and acts of corruption directly in the had been committed in connection with a presidential campaign”.
Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer did not respond immediately.