Bern (AFP)
The attorney general of Switzerland, Michael Lauber, suspected of collusion with the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, was heard on Wednesday by a parliamentary committee with a view to the possible opening of a revocation procedure against him, found a AFP journalist.
The hearing, which was held in camera, started at 1:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. GMT) and ended shortly after 3:30 p.m.
Lauber left the courtroom without speaking and rushed into a vehicle, according to an AFP photographer on site.
The judicial commission of the Federal Assembly, which must now decide whether or not to initiate a dismissal procedure against Mr. Lauber, will give a press conference at 6.30 p.m.
According to a report by the Supervisory Authority of the Public Prosecutor's Office (AS-MPC), the 54-year-old Swiss high judge in charge of the procedures related to the corruption scandals at the International Football Federation (Fifa) since March 2015, "violated several duties of office" by meeting, informally and three times, Mr. Infantino, in 2016 and 2017.
So far, Mr. Lauber has been sanctioned with an 8% reduction in his salary, which he challenged before the Federal Administrative Court.
Fifa has never denied the meetings between MM. Infantino and Lauber, explaining that they were intended to show that the international federation, which has the status of complainant in certain procedures, was "ready to collaborate with Swiss justice".
But the legal vagueness in which these meetings took place raises the question of a potential collusion between Fifa and the justice system.
In total, more than twenty procedures opened for five years in Switzerland have still not found an epilogue.
© 2020 AFP