Will Attorney General Michael Lauber be able to continue his mandate as head of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Swiss Confederation (MPC)? The interrogation hovers, while the magistrate is going to be heard in camera, Wednesday, May 20, by the members of the judicial commission of the Swiss Federal Assembly. They will have to decide whether to initiate a dismissal procedure for Mr. Lauber, on the front line in investigations related to the International Football Federation (FIFA) since 2015.
At the heart of this hearing will be three informal meetings in 2016 and 2017, without supporting minutes, between Mr. Lauber and Gianni Infantino, the president of the proceeding (civil party in the proceedings in question). One meeting is of particular interest to parliamentarians: the third, on June 16, 2017 in Bern, not mentioned by Mr. Lauber, in November 2018, during his interrogation by the supervisory authority of the Swiss public prosecutor's office (AS-MPC).
"From a political point of view, we need to shed light on what happened, says Johanna Gapany, State Councilor for the canton of Friborg (Liberal-Radical Party). Professionally, Mr. Lauber's behavior is questionable and the turn that this affair takes damages the credibility of the institutions of our country. "
Dismissal order
Some parliamentarians hold Lauber responsible for the failure to hold the trial for the controversial 2006 World Cup allotment to Germany. "The prescription in connection with this trial is largely attributable to him, as the investigation dragged on, in particular due to formal faults", annoys Roger Nordmann, president of the Socialist group in the Federal Assembly.
Just re-elected in September 2019 for a third term, the Attorney General was found guilty in March by the AS-MPC of violating several duties of office by secretly meeting with Mr. Infantino. At the end of this investigation, he was sanctioned with a reduction in wages. He appealed to the Federal Administrative Court.
One element questions before Mr. Lauber's hearing. In November 2018, the extraordinary prosecutor Ulrich Weder had issued a dismissal order after his investigation into the chief prosecutor Olivier Thormann, a relative of Mr. Lauber, head of the economic crime division of the MPC. Suspected of breach of professional secrecy, obstruction of criminal proceedings, granting of advantage and passive bribery, Mr. Thormann had been cleared before leaving the MPC of ’ "By mutual agreement" with Mr. Lauber.
According to this dismissal order, that The world consulted, it appears that Mr. Thormann exchanged, in 2017, with the legal director and deputy secretary general of FIFA, Marco Villiger (his name is blackened in the document), about the upcoming creation of the Foundation of FIFA. Launched in March 2018, this institution is a “Independent body” – whose board of directors is chaired by Mr. Infantino – " which aims to contribute to promoting social change in the world and to obtain aid for the repair or reconstruction of damaged or destroyed sports infrastructure. "
Requests for recusal
In the dismissal order, it says that Mr. Thormann "Says further" to the FIFA Legal Director that, "According to him, such a board of the foundation would need personalities of international renown, and to do this, he cited by name the Attorney General Lauber as an example". Contacted, Mr. Thormann, who today officiates as president of the appeal court of the Federal Criminal Court, did not follow up. FIFA and the MPC have yet to respond.
Several parties involved in the ongoing proceedings have rushed into the breach created by the Lauber affair. Before the trial of their clients, scheduled for Switzerland from September 14, lawyers for Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, president of Paris-Saint-Germain and BeIN Media, and Jérôme Valcke, former FIFA general secretary, filed challenges to Mr. Lauber, as well as prosecutors in charge of the investigation, Cédric Remund and Joël Pahud.
Former FIFA President Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, who has been the subject of criminal proceedings since 2015, considers that "The judicial commission should go into all the details" meetings between Mr. Lauber and Mr. Infantino. Mr. Blatter, who has the same lawyer as the Attorney General, is particularly concerned with this case. According to information from World, AS-MPC estimated in its disciplinary report that a magistrate friend of Mr. Infantino had sought in July 2015, on behalf of the latter, to glean judicial information, from the prosecutor Lauber, on the ex-president of FIFA and Michel Platini, then head of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
