A Paris court on Thursday sentenced a brother of France midfielder Paul Pogba to a three-year prison term, with two years suspended, after convicting him in a high-profile extortion case.
Mathias Pogba will be able to serve his one-year sentence with an electronic bracelet rather than behind bars.
The court also fined Paul Pogba’s brother 20,000 euros for participating in the attempted extortion of €13 million ($13.5 million) from Pogba in 2022, and for putting pressure on the player, his family and his business contacts to obtain the payment.
The case involving six men linked to Paul Pogba has shocked the French football world because the alleged perpetrators included three childhood friends and Pogba’s own brother.
The five other defendants were found guilty of extortion, kidnapping and detention, as well as participation in a criminal association, and sentenced to up to eight years in prison, as well as fines of between €20,000 and €40,000.
Roushdane K., considered to be the mastermind of the case and the only person to appear in custody, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.
The others include Boubacar C. (four years, two suspended), Machikour K. (four years, three suspended), Mamadou M. (five years, 12 months suspended) and Adama C. (five years).
Mathias Pogba’s lawyer Mbeko Tabula said the ruling was “extremely harsh”, adding he planned to appeal.
“He’s obviously in a state of shock,” he said of his client.
“From the outset, he has maintained his innocence, saying that he was manipulated, that he was coerced, that he was pressured, that he would never have acted negatively towards his brother.”
Mathias was the one to go public in the case, publishing a video on social media in August 2022 promising revelations about his younger brother that were “likely to be explosive”.
Pogba told French investigators he had in March 2022 been “tricked by childhood friends” from the gritty Paris suburb where he and Mathias grew up.
He accused them of snatching him before he was held at gunpoint by two hooded men with assault rifles, demanding €13 million for “services rendered” and blaming him for not helping them financially.
Pogba said at the time that he had paid them only €100,000.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)
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