This is the story of an ambitious duo who climb a mountain. At the end, the duo falls from above and their fall shakes the mountain. Malik Nait-Liman and Tayeb Benabderrahmane, a former anti-terrorist policeman and a businessman converted into lobbying, are, in the words of the former, like ” brothers “ : both from Algerian immigration, having grown up in the suburbs of Paris, resourceful and ambitious.
Their mountain is Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the football club bought in 2011 by the Emir of Qatar via the Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) fund. The money and the influence of the emirate, which ostensibly flirts with the Arab-Muslim community of France, attract the two men like fireflies around a light bulb in the night.
The world was able to reconstruct their rise and fall through the reading of the 57 pages of the summary report – already cited by Mediapart, Release and The Team – written by the police officers of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) and the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) on September 29, as part of a preliminary investigation on several criminal acts for which the tandem was indicted in September: “compromise of national defense secrecy”, “violation of professional secrecy”, “invasion of privacy”, “theft”, ” misappropriation of the purpose of the processing of personal data”, “influence peddling”, “assistance with the illegal entry and stay of a foreigner in France committed in an organized gang”.
It all started in early 2015. Malik Nait-Liman and Tayeb Benabderrahmane met through Sihem Souid, a former police officer who had been out of court since the publication of her book, Omerta in the police (Le Cherche-Midi, 2010), become a communicator. She takes under her wing Tayeb Benabderrahmane whom she sees as a gifted intermediary. As for Malik Nait-Liman, his past troubles with the police hierarchy – he was stripped of his secret defense clearance and he received a reprimand – can only attract his sympathy.
Friendly “love at first sight”
The meeting between Tayeb and Malik, as Malik tells it to the DGSI investigators, looks like a friendly “love at first sight”. The two affectionately call each other ” uncle “. The policeman is impressed by the “relational”, the ability to radiate, the patter of the businessman. Tayeb, he quickly sees the interest of bonding with this well-connected policeman, always ready to help and not too fussy about the procedure.
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