PARIS (AP) — A brother of World Cup winner Paul Pogba was sentenced to three years in prison — two of which are suspended — by a Paris criminal court Thursday in an extortion and kidnapping case.
Mathias Pogba has already spent time in detention and the remainder of the sentence will be served under house arrest with electronic monitoring. This sentence was in line with the prosecution’s request. His lawyer said he would likely appeal the ruling.
“He is in a state of shock. From the outset, he has maintained his innocence," lawyer Mbeko Tabula said. “They did not not take into account the fact that he has been manipulated, the fact that he has been forced to do things beyond his control.”
The case in court took place without the former Manchester United and Juventus player.
A judge ordered Mathias Pogba and five other men to stand trial following an investigation into whether Paul Pogba was the target of extortion by Mathias and childhood friends in 2022.
Mathias went on trial last month “for the offenses of attempted extortion and criminal conspiracy."
The five others demanded 13 million euros ($13.6 million) from the France midfielder, who was held up at gunpoint by hooded men in March 2022. The defendants repeatedly intimidated Paul, claiming he should have supported them after he became an international soccer star. They were accused of extortion, abduction and confinement to facilitate a crime, as well as criminal conspiracy.
Roushdane K., suspected of masterminding the blackmail, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The others also received jail terms.
According to the legal documents, the court also found that Paul had suffered economic losses of 197,000 euros ($204,000) and moral losses of 50,000 euros ($52,000). It ordered all the defendants except Mathias to jointly pay this sum to the former Juve player.
During the investigation, Paul said he paid 100,000 euros ($104,000) to the organized group including his brother.
The case became public after Mathias posted threats on social media to share “explosive” revelations about his brother, fellow French star Kylian Mbappé and Paul’s agent Rafaela Pimenta. Mathias was also a soccer player who spent most of his career with lower-tier teams in Europe.
Pogba without a club
Once one of the world’s top midfielders, Paul has made the headlines in recent years more often for his off-field problems than for his sporting ability.
This month, Juventus said it came to “a mutual agreement” with Paul to cancel his contract despite the France World Cup winner having a ban for doping slashed last month. The Serie A club never seemed overly enthusiastic about welcoming Paul back after his four-year ban for doping was reduced to 18 months following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Paul will be free to resume his career in March.
Paul tested positive for testosterone in August last year and was handed the maximum punishment by Italy’s anti-doping court.
But CAS judges cut Paul’s ban as they acknowledged a lack of intent and said his positive test was the result of erroneously taking a supplement prescribed to him by a medical doctor in Florida. Paul’s contract with Juventus was set to expire in June 2026.
In 2016, Paul became the then-most expensive soccer player in history when he joined Man United from Juventus for a fee of 105 million euros ($116 million).
He starred in France’s World Cup triumph in 2018 but returned to Juventus as a free agent in 2022. Injuries limited him to just eight Serie A appearances in his second spell at the club before his ban last year.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
The Associated Press
