(Reuters) -A Paris court convicted a brother of French international footballer Paul Pogba and five others on Thursday of attempting to extort the World Cup winner, French media reported.
Mathias Pogba received a three-year sentence, with two of them suspended, after being found guilty of organised extortion and attempted extortion, the daily L’Equipe said.
He will not serve time behind bars but must wear an electronic bracelet for a year, it said.
The other five defendants, some of them childhood friends, were handed sentences ranging from three to eight years.
Paul Pogba, who played for English club Manchester United and Italy’s Juventus, said he had been the target of extortion in March 2022 and that he had handed over 100,000 euros ($104,000) to those who had threatened him.
Mbeko Tabula, a lawyer for Mathias Pogba, was quoted by RMC Sport as saying his client was in shock and would appeal.
“From the start he has maintained his innocence,” he said. “He says he was manipulated, coerced and pressured, that he would never have acted negatively towards his brother.”
Mathias Pogba, 34, played football for Guinea and lower division clubs in Europe.
Reuters has contacted Paul Pogba’s representatives for comment.
Paul Pogba, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, is banned from playing until March after testing positive for the banned substance DHEA, which boosts testosterone levels.
Now 31, he hopes to revive his career after Juventus announced last month that he and the club had mutually agreed to terminate his contract. He last played for France in 2022 and knee surgery prevented him playing at the World Cup in Qatar.
($1 = 0.9615 euros)
(Reporting by Rohith Nair and Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)
