Paul Pogba’s brother, Mathias, one of four suspects imprisoned over £11m blackmail case

Paul Pogba’s brother, Mathias, is one of four suspects who have been imprisoned on Saturday evening over the ongoing blackmail case involving the Juventus and France midfielder.

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‘We are going to challenge this decision,’ Mathias Pogba’s lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou, told BFMTV.

Bouzrou added that Mathias ‘has not committed a criminal offence’.

The three other suspects who have been placed under investigation and imprisoned alongside Mathias are aged between 27 and 36 and are relatives of the Pogba brothers, according to an AFP source close to investigation.

On Wednesday, Mathias Pogba was detained in police custody in Paris for his alleged role in a group which attempted to extort his younger brother Paul.

Paul Pogba has accused the gang of demanding €13 million (£11.2m) from him in ‘protection money’, essentially worth €1m (£860,000) a year from the age of 16 when he first became a professional footballer.

Pogba, who now plays for Juventus after joining them on a free transfer from Manchester United in the summer, handed over €100,000 (£85,000) to the group after being escorted at gunpoint to a flat in Roissy-en-Brie, in the eastern suburb of Paris, in March.

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