Swiss court suspends trial of world football officials
The trial formally opened nine days ago but was adjourned soon afterwards. The photo shows former Swiss FIFA official, Urs Linsi (second from right) and his defence lawyers.
Keystone/Samuel Golay
The trial in Switzerland of former football officials over suspect payments linked to the 2006 World Cup has been suspended.
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The Federal Criminal court ordered a halt of the proceedings for at least five weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic and government health instructions.
“All the defendants are older than 65 and have pertinent medical preconditions. They belong to the risk group as decreed,” the court said in a statement External linkon Tuesday.
Three former senior officials from the German football association as well as a former Swiss official with world football’s governing body FIFA have been accused of fraud.
Concretely, they are alleged to have given misleading information about a multi-million-euro payment in connection with the 2006 World Cup hosted by Germany. The four men have denied any wrongdoing.
Under the statute of limitations, the cases against them might be dropped if no convictions are handed down by April 27.
In connection with the suspect payments, a former top FIFA official from Qatar, Mohamed bin Hammam, was banned for life by the world football ethics committee in 2012.
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