The president of Paris Saint-Germain football club, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, has been implicated in a “kidnapping and torture” investigation in France, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
This follows allegations that Al-Khelaifi was involved in the transfer of “likely compromising” documents from Tayeb Benabderrahmane, a French-Algerian citizen who claims to have been tortured in Qatari custody in 2020, according to a complaint submitted to French authorities by Benabderrahmane’s lawyers.
“On January 19, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation into acts of kidnapping; sequestration with torture and acts of barbarism in an organized gang; extortion in an organized gang; threats and acts of intimidation and association with criminals. This followed the receipt of two civil action complaints against Mr Benabderrahmane, according to the prosecutor’s office.
According to CNN, the Paris prosecutor’s office has assigned three investigating judges to the case.
The complaint filed by Benabderrahmane’s lawyers does not specify the nature of the alleged documents, but claims that “they were likely to be compromising for certain high-level people in Qatar, including foreigners.”
Al-Khelaifi, a Qatari national, denies any wrongdoing. His legal representative advised reporters to read a statement that “Al-Khelaifi issued to L’Equipe in November 2022.”
“You’re dealing with professional criminals,” Al-Khelaifi explained. “They’ve changed their lawyers more than they have their stories and lies. It is the pinnacle of media manipulation.
“I’m just amazed so many people have taken their lies and contradictions as credible – but that’s the media world we’re in today. Justice will be served; I don’t have time to discuss petty professional criminals.”
Lawyers for Benabderrahmane, Romain Ruiz, and Gabriel Vejnar told CNN on March 1:
“Mr. Tayeb Benabderrahmane welcomes the opening of this investigation by the French justice system and will naturally continue to defend his rights as he has done in the other proceedings he has initiated in order to establish the seriously detrimental nature of the treatment he has been subjected to by the Qatari authorities as well as by its representatives in France and abroad.
“Mr. Benabderrahmane wishes to emphasize that, contrary to popular belief, he has never been involved in extortion or blackmail against Nasser Al-Khelaifi,” Ruiz and Vejnar continued.
