Anticor filed a complaint against Nicolas Sarkozy and Claude Guéant

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar has not closed its judicial chapter. In France anyway. Indeed, the anti-corruption association (Anticor), already a civil party in the context of the judicial investigation opened in 2019 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office on a possible “give and take deal” which would have been concluded during a lunch at the ‘Élysée on November 23, 2010 between Nicolas Sarkozy, Michel Platini, then President of UEFA, and Mr. al-Thani, Crown Prince of Qatar who became Emir in 2013, filed a complaint on April 7 against the former French President , his ex-right arm Claude Guéant and the advertiser François de La Brosse in connection with the awarding of the Qatari World Cup, as revealed by our colleagues from World. This complaint filed with the PNF also mentions the following presumed offences: “passive and active influence peddling”, “active and passive corruption of a foreign public official”, “criminal association” and “illegal campaign financing election”. The Anticor association relies in particular on the revelations of Mediapart in September 2022 which reported a free collaboration of François de La Brosse, via his company ZNZ Group, in the 2007 presidential campaign won by Nicolas Sarkozy, then as a communication adviser at the Elysée.

This also concerns the payment of 600,000 euros, in 2011, by q.media, belonging to the son-in-law of Mr. al-Thani, for Mr. de La Brosse. At the time, the advertiser and the Qatari company had agreed on a pre-contract of 2 million euros for a WebTV on the emirate, “today non-existent” moreover according to the anti-corruption association) of the name of ”Enjoy Qatar”. Finally, Mr. de La Brosse also counted on the acquisition of his agency, ZNZ, then very indebted, by q.media against 8 million euros. “Are we here faced with an offer of a corrupting pact which would have been made with the specific and sole objective of thanking François de La Brosse for his services, or else faced with the partial realization of a broader corrupting pact which would have been concluded previously between Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatar?”, questions the Anticor after all these revelations. Contacted byAFP, Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer did not wish to respond immediately. For his part, the association’s lawyer, Me Jean-Baptiste Soufron, welcomed this complaint. “It was important for Anticor to take up this case because of its potential links with the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar on the one hand, but also because of the potential influence peddling and acts of corruption which would have was committed directly in connection with a presidential campaign”he pointed out.

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