Qatar spied on top Swiss investigators

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Hacker attacks, secret service meetings and bugged hotel rooms. As the media revealed last year, the desert state of Qatar has been conducting a large-scale espionage operation on Swiss soil. Football officials, as well as Russian ruler Vladimir Putin (70), were spied on while on Swiss soil. In this way, the emirate wanted to ensure that the 2022 World Cup for men will actually take place in Qatar.

Now it is known: the then federal prosecutor Michael Lauber (57) would have been tapped on behalf of Qatar. This is evident from research by “NZZ am Sonntag”.

Katari listened to secret meetings

Lauber had arranged a secret meeting with Fifa boss Gianni Infantino (52) on June 16, 2017, at the Hotel Schweizerhof in Bern. An encounter that no one likes to think about later, which eventually led to Lauber’s resignation and which is still under investigation to this day. The “NZZ am Sonntag” has documents that should prove that the room was wiretapped. The Schweizerhof has long been in Qatari hands – the Qatari embassy is just a few doors down from the conference room where Infantino and Lauber met.

A document of more than 100 pages from December 2011 shows that an attempt has been made to make the top Swiss investigator a confidant in Qatar, according to the “NZZ am Sonntag”. And that long before 2017. The background was that the federal prosecutor’s office was conducting several criminal proceedings against FIFA.

A page titled “Influence Investigations” says, “Developed an approach to cultivating ML” – meaning something like, “Developed a plan to recruit ML as a resource.” Several people have confirmed that it is Michael Lauber. According to research by “NZZ am Sonntag”, the aim of the espionage campaign was to collect incriminating material. The material could have been used to blackmail Lauber.

Lauber claims he was not blackmailed

When asked by the newspaper, a lawyer said the former federal prosecutor was not aware of a bug or the recording of the June 2017 meeting. He was never blackmailed or contacted by Qatari agents. “All speculation about this is baseless.” He still can’t remember the meeting. FIFA boss Infantino’s lawyer also says he knows nothing about covert surveillance operations, and: “No one has ever even remotely tried to influence, let alone blackmail.”

The state of Qatar and the US company Global Risk Advisors, which the report said was entrusted with the espionage task, deny the operation.

And the federal prosecutor’s office? When asked by Blick, she said that “in her current composition” she also had no knowledge of any intelligence operations. (lha)

Source:Blick