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| June 4, 2002 | Tuesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 22,1423 |
Blatter’s investigation to continue: prosecutor
ZURICH, June 3: The investigation into charges of corruption levelled against FIFA president Sepp Blatters by 11 members of FIFA’s executive committee is still continuing, the prosecutor in charge of the case told AFP on Monday.
Last week the 11 withdrew their allegations after Blatter was swept back into power but prosecutor Hansruedi Muller said the case was still open.
“We are continuing to investigate because it invloves abuse of office, abuse which the justice must investigate even if the complain is withdrawn by those making it,” Muller told AFP.
“We have made note of the withdrawal and still continue with the investigation, even if perhaps with a little less energy than before,” he added.
The executive committee members, led by European soccer chief Lennart Johansson and South Korea’s Chung Mong-Joon, filed their complaint after FIFA secretary general Michel Zen-Ruffinen delivered an explosive report to the executive committee at a meeting in Zurich last month.
In Zen-Ruffinen’s report the 44-year-old outlined allegations of a trail of deception, mismanagement, illegal payments and cronyism against Blatter.
In the 21-page dossier stamped ‘strictly confidential’ Zen-Ruffinen revealed also a secret presidential group within football’s governing body that is answerable only to Blatter, in contravention to the FIFA statutes.
Following Blatter’s landslide win last month when he crushed Africa’s Issa Hayatou to retain the presidency, Zen-Ruffinen was sacked and will leave FIFA on July 4 - fours days after the World Cup.
Blatter insists that he has done nothing wong and has nothing to fear from any legal investigation.—AFP
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