FILE PHOTO: Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber attends a news conference after its department’s watchdog investigation on his private meetings with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, in Bern, Switzerland May 10, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber will no longer participate in meetings about his department’s probe into corruption in world soccer, his office said on Wednesday, as he bows to a court order to recuse himself from the case.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court, in a ruling published on Tuesday, had concluded Lauber’s closed-door meetings with FIFA President Gianni Infantino had raised the appearance of bias and disqualified him from the probe.
Lauber’s office added his recusal would not call all of federal prosecutors’ work in the soccer investigation into question, since a task force that includes numerous prosecutors, assistant prosecutors and forensic financial experts is handling the criminal probe. “Most of the pending criminal case will proceed as planned,” the office said.
Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields