Pogba case: Mathias Pogba and four imprisoned men – 20 Minutes

The Pogba affair is accelerating. Multimillion-euro racketeering attempts, threatening video, pressure… The implications in the extortion denounced by Paul Pogba are beginning to take shape with the indictment and imprisonment on Saturday of his older brother Mathias and four men.Mathias Pogba , 32, was indicted for extortion in an organized gang and participation in a criminal association. He was placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for the facts of confinement on the night of March 19 to 20. He was placed in pre-trial detention. Mathias Pogba “is not a thug”, according to his lawyer “We are going to challenge this decision”, immediately reacted on BFMTV his lawyer Me Yassine Bouzrou. “Justice finds that the most serious offense charged (sequestration) does not concern my client, and unfortunately, we have a decision that goes against a file”. “This is an individual who has never been talked about, who has a clean criminal record, who is not a thug, who is presumed innocent”, he recalled, believing that he had “committed no criminal offence”. The four other suspects, relatives of the Pogba brothers aged 27 to 36, were indicted in particular for extortion with a weapon, kidnapping in an organized gang and criminal association. Three of them were remanded in custody. The fourth requested a delay and was temporarily imprisoned pending the debate before the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD). During their police custody, which began on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (Oclco), the five suspects said they were “victims of individuals whose names they refuse to give”, explained another source close to the investigation. But, “they contradict each other and lie.” The oldest has already been sentenced twice for acts of a criminal nature, said a source familiar with the matter. He wore a splint during the debate, ensuring, according to this source, that he was shot in the arm in the context of the Pogba affair. An investigation “far from over” Me Romain Boulet, who defends a man of 33 years, believes for his part that his client “is the victim of manipulation and threats from blackmailers, in the same way as Paul Pogba. It’s a trap that has closed on him. “Like Paul Pogba, my client claims to be a victim in this case. The instruction will have to shed light on this aspect”, also estimated Me Carole Niechcicki, lawyer for a man born in 1988. The role of Mathias Pogba is not yet “totally clear” and “the investigation is far from complete. ‘be over’, according to the source familiar with the matter. He admitted, before the investigators, to be at the initiative of the video, broadcast on August 27, having revealed this affair which shakes the world of football two months before the World Cup in Qatar (November 20-December 18).