Investigations into the controversial awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar are accelerating. The former Tahitian vice-president of Fifa, Reynald Temarii, was indicted Monday for passive private corruption by Parisian investigating judges, a first in this case.
This indictment was served on Temarii by the investigating magistrates in a letter of May 22, said Saturday 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, Temarii and his lawyer, Gilles Jourdainne, declined 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 in favor of Qatar of Michel Platini, at the time boss of UEFA, for the 2022 World Cup, was obtained in exchange for compensation. At the heart of the suspicions is a lunch held in 2010 between Nicolas Sarkozy, then President of the Republic, Platini and two senior Qatari leaders.
But the magistrates are also interested in Temarii's about-face on the eve of 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 OFC therefore 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, Temarii appealed his suspension on the night of 30 November to 1 December even though 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, who were favourites.
"We are quite satisfied to see that the file is moving forward"
In October 2022, during a press conference, the former Tahitian vice-president said he was the victim of fraud, explaining that he had received, before deciding to appeal, 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 "a finding of guilt and would jeopardize his defence". According to him, these were false elements intended to push him to appeal.
In this aspect, the assumption of the defense costs of Mr. Temarii for an amount of 305,000 euros by the influential Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam also intrigues the investigating judges or an all-expenses paid trip to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) between his sanction and the vote of Fifa, to meet Mr. Bin Hammam. According to several sources close to the case, Mr. Brisard, also placed under the status of assisted witness and who contests any intention of fraud, was summoned on May 22 by the investigating judges. But this summons was postponed.
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We are rather satisfied to see that the file is progressing and that steps are beginning to be taken, "responded to AFP Me Jean-Baptiste Soufron, lawyer of Anticor, civil party in the file. "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."
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