Günter Netzer will most probably not testify as a witness within the “Summer Fairy Tale” trial. Netzer, whose listening to was scheduled for May 23, knowledgeable the Frankfurt regional court docket by his lawyer that he wouldn’t journey to the trial location by his lawyer with out giving causes, presiding choose Eva-Marie Distler stated on Thursday.
An announcement by way of video hyperlink appears unlikely. Netzer, who lives in Switzerland, had pushed for the reimbursement of a mortgage of 10 million Swiss francs on behalf of the businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who died in 2009; In August 2003 he accompanied Horst R. Schmidt and Theo Zwanziger, who had been now accused of tax evasion, to a gathering with Louis-Dreyfus in Switzerland.
In addition to Schmidt and Zwanziger, one other organizer of the 2006 World Cup, Wolfgang Niersbach, is accused. The reimbursement of the cash in euros, 6.7 million, to Dreyfus by the German Football Association (DFB) by way of an account of the International Football Association FIFA on the subject of a share within the prices of a World Cup gala, which was later canceled, was by the DFB officers claimed it as a enterprise expense.
The defendants deny the accusation of tax evasion amounting to round 13.7 million euros. The view was supported on Thursday by the DFB’s former tax advisor, Hanno Schmitz-Hüsler. The switch of the quantity didn’t improve or lower the World Cup organizing committee’s steadiness sheet by a cent. In phrases of tax, the influence was “zero”.
Meanwhile, former FIFA President Joseph Blatter and former FIFA Secretary General Urs Linsi seem prepared to seem as witnesses to the court docket by way of video hyperlink from Switzerland. The prerequisite is that Switzerland supplies authorized help, which is “not absolutely the case” in tax proceedings, as Distler stated.