French justice says it is “incompetent” to prosecute Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, suspected of corruption during World Athletics candidacies

It is a landmark decision. French justice is “incompetent” to initiate proceedings on suspicion of corruption targeting the boss of PSG Nasser Al-Khelaïfi around the candidacies of the World Athletics Championships of 2017 and 2019, according to a judgment of the Court of Cassation, consulted Thursday, February 16 by AFP. Consequence of this decision, the nature of which is final: the indictment for active corruption of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi, pronounced on May 23, 2019, is canceled.

“I am delighted with this decision which is in accordance with the law and I recall that Nasser Al-Khelaïfi has always denied having committed the slightest offense in this case”, reacted to AFP Me Francis Szpiner, lawyer for Mr. Al-Khelaïfi with Me Renaud Semerdjian. The lawyers of Yousif Al-Obaidli, commercial director of the Al Jazeera channel indicted for the same offence, joined in this appeal. The decision of the Court of Cassation, handed down on Wednesday, also puts an end to the proceedings against him.

No “connection link”

The highest court of the judiciary ruled that there was no “connection link” between alleged acts of corruption committed in France and abroad. The suspicions related to two payments of a total of 3.5 million dollars (3.2 million euros), made in the fall of 2011 by the company Oryx Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) – directed by Khalid Al-Khelaïfi , Nasser’s brother – for the benefit of a sports marketing company run by Papa Massata Diack, son of the former president of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), Lamine Diack.

Papa Massata Diack, nicknamed “PMD” in the media, has long managed the IAAF’s marketing rights file. The investigating judges and the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal relied on a meeting at the Hotel Negresco in Nice, therefore on French territory, and a transfer of two million dollars made on an account in France, to justify the jurisdiction of the French courts to carry out investigations into these suspicions.

Qatar would have received in return the support of the former big boss of athletics Lamine Diack to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships, organized by the IAAF, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The death of Mr. Diack in December 2021 extinguished the criminal charges against him.