Prosecutors appeal against Blatter, Platini let-off in FIFA fraud trial | Tellwell Newspaper
Tellwell Newspaper, Abuja – Nigeria:
By Michael Fitzpatrick
Swiss prosecutors have filed an appeal against the acquittal of former football chiefs Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini over a suspected fraudulent payment. Blatter and Platini, once the directors of world and European football respectively, were cleared in July by the Federal Criminal Court.
Switzerland’s top prosecutor “has applied for the full annulment of the first-instance judgement,” the Office of the Attorney General wrote in an email.
Former FIFA president Blatter, 86, and Platini, 67, were cleared of the allegations that shook world football. The trial revolved around payment for Platini’s work as an advisor to Blatter between 1998 and 2002.
The Federal Criminal Court rejected the prosecution’s request for a suspended prison sentence of one year and eight months.
Platini was accused of having submitted to FIFA in 2011 a fictitious invoice for a debt which he claimed was outstanding for his advisory work.
The pair signed a contract in 1999 for an annual remuneration of 305,000 euros, which was paid in full by FIFA.
Additional payment in question
But the pair were tried over a two million euro payment in 2011 to Platini, who was then in charge of European football’s governing body UEFA.
Blatter told the court the pair had actually struck a “gentleman’s agreement” for Platini to be paid a million Swiss francs a year.
Both were accused of fraud and forgery of a document. Blatter was accused of misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, while Platini was accused of participating in those offences.
The court concluded that fraud had not been “established with a likelihood bordering on certainty”, and therefore applied the general principle of criminal law according to which “the doubt must benefit the accused”.
RFI
