Spanish justice has ruled: there is no convincing evidence to confirm the suspicions surrounding Eric Abidal's liver transplant in 2012.
Reopened in 2019 after telephone tapping where Sandro Rosell, the former president of Barcelona, mentioned that "the club had saved the defender's life by buying him a liver", the study of the heritage of Gérard Armand, one of his cousins who had been the donor to save the French international, has not revealed any anomaly since the transplant carried out in 2012.
As a reminder of the facts, Éric Abidal discovered in 2007 that he had a liver tumor.
Despite surgical interventions, the Frenchman needs a transplant.
It was his cousin, Gérard Armand, who was the donor in 2012. Since this operation, a first investigation was opened in 2017 questioning irregularities in the transaction.
It was also at this time that the existing family ties between Abidal and his donor were called into question.
Also read “I am Eric Abidal’s first cousin”: Gérard Armand reacts to accusations of organ trafficking
The latter vigorously defended himself, asserting: “Eric is really my first cousin.
His father is my mother's brother, and I brought the birth certificate to prove it when I was summoned to court in Barcelona.
» A year later, the affair resurfaced after discussions between Sandro Rosell and one of his collaborators.
Suspicions of organ trafficking begin to arise.
Suspicions that were therefore swept away by the Spanish justice system, which indicated that there were only “suspicions and conjectures” in this case, but no “sufficient clues”.
The country's justice system thus found nothing illegal in the financial transactions between FC Barcelona and Éric Abidal, just as it was unable to shed light on any ostensible increase in Gérard Armand's assets since the surgical intervention.
“The file was closed” by the magistrate in charge of the case “due to a lack of evidence relating to the commission of a crime,” said this source, without giving further details.