Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and PSG coach Luis Enrique, in Paris, July 5, 2023, the day the club president was greeted by police officers at Le Bourget airport (Seine-Saint-Denis). AURELIEN MORISSARD / AP
A trusted man and tennis partner of Emir Tamim Al-Thani, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, known as “NAK”, can boast of wearing, among his many hats, that of Minister of State without portfolio of Qatar since November 2011 It is this title that the president of Paris Saint-Germain and his entourage put forward in vain, on July 5, 2023, at Le Bourget airport (Seine-Saint-Denis) in an attempt to prevent investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO) to seize his cell phone and conduct a search.
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As revealed MediapartNAK and its advisers put pressure, that day, on the police officers responsible for investigations as part of the judicial information opened, in 2023, by the Paris prosecutor’s office, notably for suspicions of “arrest”, ” kidnapping”, “sequestration with torture or barbaric act committed by an organized gang”, “extortion”, “criminal association” in connection with the detention, in 2020 in Qatar, of the Franco-Algerian lobbyist and businessman Tayeb Benabderrahmane, and the attempts of alleged kidnappings of which the former Moroccan butler of NAK, Hicham Karmoussi, would have been the target in 2020.
Viewed by The worldthe minutes of “due diligence carried out relating to arrival” at Le Bourget, coming from London, of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi’s plane, shows how the boss of PSG sought to take refuge behind his diplomatic immunity when investigators intercepted him with the aim of searching his homes and his Paris office and to take possession of his cell phone, in order to place it under judicial seal.
The presentation of the new PSG coach
On July 5, 2023, at Le Bourget, while the police were awaiting the arrival of NAK, the latter’s English lawyers presented them with a “document in English on the header of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar dated July 3, 2023 mentioning that Mr. Al-Khelaïfi, Minister of State, is on an official visit to France from July 5 to 9.” “You are requested to facilitate the visit and resolve any problems that may arise” NAK, can we read on the said document signed by the office of the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar.
However, as it had already confirmed to the courts before the search operation, the Quai d’Orsay was not aware of any official mission in France by NAK during this period and reaffirmed to investigators that the document presented by the Qatari does not constitute notification of an official mission.
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