In an order signed on Thursday, the two investigating judges accepted the request for release presented a few days earlier by Mathias Pogba’s lawyer, said the judicial source. The prosecution did not object to this request, he added. His lawyer, Me Yassine Bouzrou, was not reached at noon. According to Le Parisien, Mathias Pogba, 32, left the pre-trial detention center of Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis) on Friday morning where he had been detained since 18 September.
Reported for extortion in an organized gang and participation in criminal conspiracy to commit a crime, he had already challenged his placement in precautionary custody, first before the two investigating judges in charge of this file then, faced with their refusal, before the investigation chamber of the Court of ‘Paris Appeal. In this case, four other suspects, relatives of the Pogba brothers aged between 27 and 36, were indicted in particular for extortion with a weapon, kidnapping in an organized gang and criminal association. It was Mathias Pogba himself who revealed in an enigmatic video broadcast on August 27 the extortion of which his younger brother claims to be the victim. Paul Pogba, who plays for Juventus in Turin (Italy) had denounced in a complaint filed with the Turin prosecutor’s office on July 16, extortion for 13 million euros between March and July 2022.
An investigation had been opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office, followed by a judicial investigation on 2 September for, in particular, extortion with a weapon, kidnapping or kidnapping in organized gangs and participation in criminal association. Paul Pogba told French investigators he was trapped by childhood friends and two hooded men armed with assault rifles, accusing him of not helping them financially. Of the 13 million euros requested, he says he paid 100,000 euros. Mathias Pogba, who denies any participation in the events, is also suspected of having pressured his brother’s agent, the lawyer Rafaela Pimenta, to make Paul Pogba pay the sum demanded by his singing teachers.
