At the end of his long argument, Michel Platini’s lawyer, Dominic Nellen, asked for the acquittal of his client on Monday in the alleged disloyal payment case of 2 million Swiss francs that Sepp Blatter made to French, in 2011.
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Tapping nervously under his chair, Michel Platini did not take off his nose, Monday, June 20, from the 78 pages of the argument of his lawyer, Dominic Nellen. Back at the Swiss Federal Criminal Tribunal (TPF) of Bellinzone, after a week of exemption, the former French president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) was entitled to a simultaneous translation in his helmet: He listened carefully for four hours, leafing through the paper version, his advice asking in German his “acquittal” in the alleged disloyal payment case of 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) that made to him, In February 2011, the former boss of the International Football Association Federation (FIFA), Sepp Blatter.
On the ninth day of the trial of his client and Mr. Blatter for “suspicions of scam, breach of trust, unfair and false management in titles”, M e nellen invited the TPF To “whiten” the name of Mr. Platini, targeted from 2020 by the criminal procedure opened, in September 2015, by the public prosecutor of the Confederation (MPC) against the former president of FIFA.
The young 37 -year -old lawyer also asked that the amount of 2.2 million Swiss francs seized on the account of his “principal” is returned to the latter, while FIFA, complainant, wants to recover this sum “Diverted by defendants”.
a year and eight months suspended prison required by the prosecutor
M e nellen has strived to dismantle the arguments put forward by prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand, who requested a year and eight months suspended prison against MM. Platini and Blatter.
The lawyer for the ex-player refutes the thesis of “illegitimate enrichment” brandished by the accusation: he repeats that by virtue of an “oral agreement” sealed in 1998, Mr. Platini and M . Blatter would have agreed on a remuneration of 1 million Swiss annual francs, when the Frenchman would officiate, from Paris, as technical advisor to the president of FIFA just elected.
According to M e nellen, in 1998, “practically everyone in the circles” of FIFA and UEFA “had to hear about the million”. The lawyer claims that “the corresponding oral agreement remained valid”, even if Mr. Blatter and Mr. Platini initialed, in August 1999, a consultant contract fixing a “provisional” salary of 300,000 Swiss annual francs, ” reason for the precarious financial situation “of FIFA until 2002.
Mr. Platini’s advice explains that, in early 2010, the latter “reminded FIFA that she still owed him money”, when he “heard of high golden parachutes” paid for two Former FIFA executives.
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