March 12 – After a series of legal losses in his battle against criminal prosecution in Switzerland, FIFA president Gianni Infantino had a win yesterday when the Swiss Federal Criminal Court ruled in favour of one of four complaints Infantino’s legal team had made in December 2020.
The court ruled that extraordinary Federal Prosecutor Stefan Keller had extended his investigation beyond its remit, and was outside of its “competence” when questioning an individual close to Infantino over the use of a private jet from Suriname to Switzerland.
The court ruled that the transcript of the questioning of the individual be removed from the files. “The court takes the position that the questioning was an actual interrogation for which the extraordinary public prosecutor of the Confederation was not competent in November 2020,” said a press release from Keller’s office.
FIFA in its own press release continued its line of condemnation of the investigation saying “Stefan Keller acted illegally by extending his investigation beyond its remit.
“Mr Keller was appointed to look into certain meetings that the former Swiss Attorney General, Michael Lauber, had with the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino. However, instead of doing this, Mr Keller, who has yet to even interview the FIFA President after nine months, started looking into things that have nothing to do with his appointed mandate.”
FIFA pulled no punches by going on to say: “Mr Keller issued a media release stating that there were “clear indications of criminal conduct on the part of the FIFA President”. Now it is clear that this unfounded and defamatory statement was made on the basis of an investigative act which was itself illegal, null and void.”
While FIFA’s lawyers are understandably celebrating the win of having the interview removed from the file (it was one of four complaints filed last December, the other three are still to be ruled on), Keller nevertheless made it clear in his press statement that the criminal investigation continues.
“In addition to the “use of a private jet” case, Stefan Keller is continuing his mandate from the Federal Assembly as Attorney General Extraordinary for the “unrecorded conversations” case involving former Federal Prosecutor Michael Lauber and FIFA President Gianni Infantino as planned. In addition, Stefan Keller is investigating further criminal charges on behalf of the AB-BA regarding various other facts.”
Infantino is currently in Rabat, Morocco, where he is understood to have arrived by private jet. He has spent much of the last month on a private jet as he has traversed the continent with occasional returns to Europe, prior to today’s CAF Congress. That jet is allegedly being supplied courtesy of the state of Qatar, though may come under the auspices of the Qatar Airlines sponsorship. Certainly Infantino would not have been able to maintain his current itenary travelling scheduled airline, particularly in the current travel restricted environment.
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