French police on Tuesday searched the city hall of a Paris district run by former conservative minister Rachida Dati and the offices of two lawyers in an investigation into Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al- Khelaïfi, as reported by sources close to the case.
Agents from the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO) carried out the operation as part of an investigation opened in January for kidnapping and torture, among other crimes, denounced by a French-Algerian lobbyist, as one of the sources told AFP.
That 42-year-old lobbyist, Tayeb Benabderrahmane, filed a complaint in court in 2022 that he was arrested in 2020 in Qatar, where he had taken up residence three months earlier, for his lobbying actions.
According to his account, he was tortured during the six months he was detained. He was released in November 2020 after signing a protocol, in which he committed himself not to disclose “sensitive” documents from Al-Khelaïfi, nor to talk about the owner of PSG.
In addition to the searches in the 7th arrondissement of the French capital, the offices of lawyers Francis Szpiner — mayor of the 16th arrondissement of Paris — and Olivier Pardo were also investigated, sources say.
Dati, Minister of Justice (from 2007 to 2009) during Nicolas Sarkozy’s government, was indicted in July 2021 for “passive corruption” and “covering up abuse of power” in the investigation into her work as an advisor to Franco-Brazilian businessman Carlos Ghosn, former head of Renault-Nissan, which she denies.
Paris is divided into 20 districts, whose citizens choose their respective mayors every six years. The central districts (1st to 6th) have the same chief executive. The elected municipal councilors (alderadores) then choose the mayor, or mayor, of the entire city, currently the socialist Anne Hidalgo.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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