(Paris) The Paris court on Wednesday requested a criminal trial for six relatives of Paul Pogba, including his brother Mathias, at the end of the investigation into the kidnapping and extortion of the footballer in 2022, AFP learned from a source close to the file.
According to the requisitions of which AFP was aware, five relatives of the French footballer are suspected of having “carefully prepared” a meeting in the Paris suburbs on March 19, 2022, during which the player –– since suspended for four years for doping – had been kidnapped and robbed by two unidentified men who demanded 13 million euros ($19.2 million) from him.
His brother Mathias, absent that night, is suspected of having subsequently put pressure on his younger brother, “imbued with the same determination to obtain from (Paul Pogba) the remittance of funds”.
During the investigation, everyone denied it, claiming to also be “victims” of the robbers and to have been attacked because Paul Pogba refused to pay.
Their lawyers could not immediately be reached on Wednesday.
The three childhood friends and two former acquaintances from the neighborhood where the Pogba grew up, in Roissy-en-Brie, in the Paris region, who were present on the night of March 19, 2022, were indicted in Paris for extortion with weapon and kidnapping by an organized gang, as well as for criminal association.
The Paris court on Wednesday requested the reclassification of the facts by abandoning the aggravating circumstance of the organized gang and requested a criminal trial for all, for extortion, kidnapping and criminal association.
The affair became public, turning into a family drama, when Mathias Pogba published videos in the summer of 2022 incriminating his younger brother whom he accused of having “abandoned” them.
During the investigation, Mathias assured that he was afraid for his safety and that of his loved ones, then told the judges in January that he had been manipulated by the other suspects, and hoped to quickly reconcile with his brother.
The court requested that he be tried for extortion and participation in a criminal conspiracy.
“It cannot be seriously disputed that the relationship between Mathias Pogba and his brother Paul has been marked, for several years, by tensions crystallized around the financial question,” recalls the public prosecutor.
“Several intercepted conversations” in the summer of 2022 “evidenced the firm desire of the person concerned to obtain payment under threat”, points out the court.
The decision whether or not to refer the case to trial now rests with the investigating judge.