The name Slim Riahi returns to the front page and some of his lawyers confirmed that he hoped to return to Tunisia, regularize his legal situation and take all the steps for criminal conciliation.
While the name Slim Riahi resurfaces, some of his lawyers have confirmed that he hoped to return to Tunisia in order to regularize his legal situation and take all the steps for criminal conciliation.
Slim Riahi, former president of the Free Patriotic Union and the African Club, is involved in several cases, some of which have been hired by the Bab Jedid club.
Last Monday, the court examined a case filed by the provisional management committee of the African club concerning the former player Boubakar Diarra. Slim Riahi is accused of having diverted $ 350,000, the amount of the transaction for the transfer of the Congolese to an Egyptian team.
His defense team attended the audience to plead his cause, saying that he had invested billions in the club with his own funds, as confirmed by a financial report.
Ahmed Tounsi, lawyer and member of the legal committee of the African club, said the court postponed the case to July 8 after Slim Riahi asked for criminal conciliation. It should be noted that the former president of the African club did not include his own funds in the dispute, unlike the former president of the Etoile Sportive du Sahel, Ridha Charfeddine. He repeatedly repeated that he would not ask for a dinar from the association.
In the meantime, another case has been engaged against Slim Riahi by the Clubist steering committee, concerning irregularities in management, including cases of embezzlement of a sponsorship contract, as well as suspicions of corruption involving real estate aspects and surrealist contracts for players recruited during the period of Slim Riahi, without payment of their salaries.
More than 29 billion have been paid in wages in the past five years. The African Club annual report for the 2022-2023 season has revealed more than 12 judicial cases, three of which involve Slim Riahi and focus on Boubakar Diarra, a case of financial corruption and money laundering, as well as administrative issues such as the non-preparation of financial reports during its mandate.
According to the Legal Commission of the African Club, the association will not conclude any agreement with Slim Riahi as long as it has not made the commitment to reimburse all the debts contracted by the club and to resolve all the offenses in accordance with the law.
It should be noted that the former president of the African club declared in May 2022 that he would return to Tunisia to face justice, adding that he was neither corrupt nor criminal, and that he will do everything possible to recover his rights by law and before an independent and just court.
He was sentenced on December 12, 2019 to 11 years in prison in absentia for money laundering. Slim Riahi took control of the African club in July 2012, then resigned in November 2017 due to the accumulation of judicial affairs against him and the frost of his assets by decision of the investigating judge at the judicial center.
