April 29 – Conservative Swiss MP Lorenz Hess has filed a request for a dismissal procedure to be initiated against the nation’s attorney general Michael Lauber (pictured), who has come under severe pressure after the five-year statute of limitations in the 2006 World Cup fraud investigation expired on Monday.
Lauber had already been the subject of intense scrutiny over his controversial meetings with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, but socialist Matthias Aebischer, another MP, said in an interview with SFR that “it can’t go on like this anymore.”
Lauber was the first federal prosecutor to be directly elected by parliament, but the potential impeachment proceedings may also mean that same parliament will also end his endure. Hess is a member of the parliament’s judicial committee and said: “There is enough on the table to act.”
In May, Lauber will probably be heard by the committee before its members will decide on opening the dismissal procedure.
“The committee will certainly have many questions to ask Mr. Lauber,” said Hess. “We asked him a lot already at the time of his re-election. These questions about the meetings and the lack of a protocol, we will not ask them again. What will be put forward, certainly, will be on the one hand the prescription of the FIFA case which is a small disaster. And on the other hand, we will certainly discuss these reproaches which have been raised in the media concerning correspondence and discussions between the MPC and FIFA “.
After spending a decade in Liechtenstein’s financial world in various roles, Lauber became Switzerland’s most ‘powerful’ prosecutor in 2012. He met current FIFA president Gianni Infantino in secret and undocumented meetings three times behind closed-doors, while investigating suspected corruption involving soccer’s world governing body. In the wake of those revelations, the Swiss parliament didn’t remove Lauber from his post. He was, however, disciplined for serious breaches of ethics and his wages were reduced by 8%.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1734971925labto1734971925ofdlr1734971925owedi1734971925sni@o1734971925fni1734971925