Panafrican News Agency

FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, faces criminal proceedings In Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland (PANA) - Swiss special prosecutor, Stefan Keller, announced on Thursday that he has opened criminal proceedings against FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, and former Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber.

The proceedings, he said, relate to an undisclosed June 2017 meeting between Infantino and Lauber, who at the time was investigating allegations of corruption at FIFA.

A Swiss court concluded last week that Lauber covered up the meeting and lied to his supervisors about it, prompting him to offer his resignation.

Keller’s office, which was appointed last week to investigate dealings between Infantino and Lauber, announced it uncovered indications of criminal conduct relating to the meeting.

“This concerns abuse of public office, breach of official secrecy, assisting offenders and incitement to these acts,” Keller’s office said in a statement.

Both Infantio and Lauber previously have denied wrongdoing. The proceedings against Infantino raise the spectre of another scandal hanging over FIFA.

The original FIFA scandal, known in some circles as “FIFAgate”, broke out in 2015 after the United States Justice Department indicted several world-soccer officials, leading to the downfall of former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, who had reigned over the sport’s governing body between 1998 and 2015.

Infantino won the FIFA election to replace Blatter in 2016.

-0- PANA VAO 30July2020