Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi is being investigated over the alleged "kidnapping and torture" of Franco-Algerian lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane in Qatar, reports suggest.
According to previous media reports, Benabderrahmane was detained in Qatar in January 2020, and later tortured and held under house arrest for six months. He was then released only in November 2020 after being forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding some "sensitive documents".
It is reported that these documents pertained to the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, as well as the television rights to the 2026 and 2030 editions of the tournament to one particular Qatar media outlet, headed by Al-Khelaifi, who was accused of making a pact with former FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke before being acquitted in October 2020.
"We are very happy that the real file of this story is finally investigated by the French justice," Mr. Benabderrahmane's lawyers, Maitres Romain Ruiz and Gabriel Vejnar, told the news agency.
Last year, Al-Khelaifi responded to the allegations with the following statement: "You are talking about professional criminals. They’ve changed their lawyers more times than they’ve changed their stories and their lies."
"It is the ultimate media manipulation. I’m just amazed so many people have taken their lies and contradictions as credible – but that’s the media world we’re in today. Justice will run its course – I don’t have time to talk about petty professional criminals," reads the statement.