Psg, from Mbappè to Al Khelaifi: spies, torture, blackmail and social wars

PSG faces the away match in Ajaccio tomorrow, without Ramos and Neymar disqualified. But the problems for the team coached by Christophe Galtier, who among other things face his son Jordan as deputy on the bench of the courses, are elsewhere. Not on the pitch at least. The club of the Emir of Qatar is in fact surrounded by scandals and controversies involving the leaders in a multiple intrigue that involves French and Qatari secret services, including threats, extortion attempts, accusations of torture, millionaire compensation and social wars.

torture

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After the French derby won on Sunday against Marseille (1-0), Marco Verratti, now the longest-serving player at PSG, tried to relativize: “In Paris every little problem takes on enormous proportions, but we are used to it”. The fact is that this time there is also justice that investigates to clarify a sprawling affair. It ended up on the front page of the Equipe, with President Nasser Al Khelaifi formally victim, but at the center of a series of power struggles, with at least atypical implications. The top Parisian executive is in fact called into question by Tayeb Banabderrahmane, a businessman who worked in Qatar in 2019 for the local Human Rights Committee. In January 2020, however, he was arrested in Doha on charges of espionage, blackmail and fraud. Returning to France, Banabderrahmane said he was taken to the prisons of the Qatari secret services, subjected to torture and finally released only after signing a private agreement with Al Khelaifi, where he undertook not to disclose private documents, already seized in exchange for the release, with a penalty of $ 5 million otherwise.

searches

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At the end of September, however, Banabderrahmane was also stopped by the French authorities on charges of corruption, forgery and use of forgery, fraudulent complicity in accessing personal data. For the team, Banabderrahmane could have gathered information on Al Khelaifi’s private life at the request of some Qatari rival of the Parisian president. Perhaps with the help of Malik Nait-Liman, a former secret and police agent, whom Banabderrahmane himself presented to Al Khelaifi as the ideal interlocutor in the management of the ultras. Involved in another investigation, the search of the latter’s home revealed new documents that would show how the former agent, removed from the police for double work with the capital’s club, exploited his contacts in the services to obtain confidential information on people considered uncomfortable for the PSG.

social war

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Nait-Liman was also detained at the end of September, but the relationship with Hicham Karmoussi, former tennis player, for a long time very close collaborator of Al Khelaifi, then removed from the president’s circle, remains to be defined. For Banabderrahmane, it was Kramoussi who provided him with the compromising documents on Al Khelaifi. Nait-Liman, on the other hand, could also have worked on input from the former communications director and trusted man of Al Khelaifi, Jean-Martial Ribes, who however categorically denies having ordered illegal operations. And also the social campaigns, through a Spanish agency, to target people considered “enemies”, but also players or managers. Not only Rabiot, and his mother agent Véronique, but also Antero Henrique, ds for the two-year period 2017-19, however, who returned as a consultant to the president this summer; and above all Mbappé who in 2019 was targeted by some Twitter accounts very popular with fans. A revelation, the latter, which prompted the star to plan a summer sale, despite the contract renewed in May, until 2024.

other inquiries

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According to the team, Ribes is also brought up by Sihem Souid, at the helm of a communication agency that deals with the image of Qatar in France. The former policewoman confirms that she knows Banabderrahmane, but says she is the victim of a destabilization maneuver, also organized by Ribes and Nait-Liman, to discredit her in Qatar. One version, the team points out, is not present in the minutes of the investigation in progress. An investigation in which Al Khelaifi, his collaborators recall, is the main victim of an attempted extortion. But the problems for the PSG do not end there. The investigation into the aggression that took place a year ago against Kheira Hamraoui, a PSG midfielder who has been bolted by individuals now arrested, and probably hired by Aminata Diallo, a team colleague, a rival also in the national team, is still underway. in turn under investigation, despite declaring herself unrelated to the facts. And finally, the Nice prosecutor is investigating John Valovic-Galtier. For the investigators, the adopted son of the PSG coach, Chritophe Galtier, works as an agent without having the titles, within the company Score Agencies, which also manages the interests of the Parisian coach himself. PSG is still first in the standings and one step away from qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League.