This is a first indictment that could lead to others. The former Tahitian vice-president of FIFA, Reynald Temarii, has been indicted by Parisian investigating judges for passive private corruption in the case of the controversial award of the World Cup-2022 to Qatar.

This indictment was served on Reynald Temarii by the investigating magistrates in a letter of Monday, May 22, said Saturday, May 27 the national financial prosecutor's office (PNF), confirming information from Le Monde.

The former president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) was since November 2021 placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness in this case.

Contacted by AFP, Reynald Temarii and his lawyer, Gilles Jourdainne, did not wish to comment.

In this judicial investigation opened in 2019 in Paris on the designation of the emirate as host country, the investigating judges seek to know if the vote of the former boss of UEFA, Michel Platini, in favor of Qatar for the World Cup-2022 football, was obtained in exchange for compensation.

" READ ALSO – A World Cup bought? Since 2010, suspicions of corruption weigh on Qatar

The role of Reynald Temarii

At the heart of the suspicions is a lunch held in 2010 between Nicolas Sarkozy, then President of the Republic, Michel Platini and two senior Qatari leaders. But the magistrates are also interested in the about-face of Reynald Temarii the day before the award of the World Cup to Qatar.

Suspended for one year by FIFA (International Football Federation) on 17 November 2010 for breach of the code of ethics after articles in the Sunday Times, Reynald Temarii could no longer sit on the executive committee on 2 December 2010 for the vote. The Oceania Football Confederation had to appoint a replacement who would have given his vote to Australia in the first round of voting and, if unsuccessful, to the United States, Qatar's main rivals.

However, Reynald Temarii appealed his suspension on the night of 30 November to 1 December, although he had previously announced that he accepted the sanction and did not have the reasons of the ethics committee allowing him to do so.

By appealing, according to FIFA's statutes, he deprived the OFC of a representative during the vote. On December 2, 2010, Qatar won over the United States, despite being favourites.

Expert in troubled waters

In October 2022, during a press conference, Reynald Temarii said he was the victim of fraud, explaining that before deciding to appeal, he had received a confidential note from consultant Jean-Charles Brisard informing him that the Swiss federal prosecutor's office was considering prosecuting him for corruption, which was false.

He had stated that, according to this note, a "waiver of the appeal on his part" amounted to "an admission of guilt and would compromise his defence". According to him, these were false elements intended to push him to appeal.

In this part, an all-expenses-paid trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between his sanction and the FIFA vote, to meet the influential Qatari Mohammed Bin Hammam, also intrigues the investigating judges.

Just like the assumption of the defense costs of Reynald Temarii for an amount of 305,000 euros by Mohammed Bin Hammam. This sum was paid to Jean-Charles Brisard's company, JCB Consulting, via a backdated agreement.

According to several sources close to the case, Jean-Charles Brisard, an expert consultant on the issue of financing Islamist terrorist organizations, also placed under the status of assisted witness and who contests any intention to defraud, was summoned on May 22 by the investigating judges. But this summons was postponed indefinitely.

"We are rather satisfied to see that the file is moving forward and that steps are beginning to be taken," responded to AFP Me Jean-Baptiste Soufron, lawyer of Anticor, civil party in the case. "Especially since it is not so common to move people from the status of assisted witness to that of indicted, which necessarily indicates a new analysis of the file by the judges."

With AFP

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