The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed on Friday that the investigation into suspicions of espionage by Michel Platini by Qatar had been closed.
The preliminary investigation was opened in 2022. Following investigations carried out and revealed in particular by the Sunday Times, Qatar was then implicated and designated as the alleged sponsor of a global espionage operation, targeting various personalities, including Michel Platini. This preliminary investigation for “ breach of an automated data processing system », “theft and violation of the secrecy of correspondence », was closed without further action, announced The world Friday.
This dismissal was ordered on January 12 by the Paris prosecutor’s office, the media said. The investigation in question concerned the hacking of Michel Platini in 2019. For its part, the Sunday Times had at the time put forward the fact that the former boss of UEFA had been spied on that year, shortly before his placement in police custody due to suspicions of corruption linked to the attribution of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
“Unfortunately, I will never know”
In the columns of WorldMichel Platini regretted the decision: “ Unfortunately, I will never know why I was hacked. » The former number ten of the Blues had been heard as a complainant on January 4, 2023, recalled the media, he who had also already been heard as a free suspect in the context of the same affair, by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in December 2017 .
The mystery will therefore not be resolved and the investigation ends there. As a reminder, the Sunday Times estimated that around fifty personalities had been victims of hacking attempts. In addition to Michel Platini, lawyers and journalists were concerned.
