Wording of the judgement against Sheikh Ahmad: "Selfish actions, bad collaboration, nil awarness of wrongdoing"
We provide subscribers with the latest judgement. Read the document and make up your own mind. Ahmad and his supporters are still lying. To this day, the Olympic family continues to perpetuate lie that the criminal conviction is somehow just a private matter – but the case shows Ahmad's true colors.
Last weekend, we presented new facts about the convicted criminal Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. But we want you to know more, which is why THE INQUISITOR is providing you with the court document that shines the light of truth on the matter, as such papers have done in other cases. So let's take a look together at the judgement of the Chambre pénale d'appel et de révision (CPAR) in Geneva against the eternal Olympic power broker Sheikh Ahmad and four servants he once paid.
Because it is important.
Ahmad's troops are acting as if this is about marginal matters, just a bit of forgery and fraud. A family feud and political dispute in Kuwait; just some rather trivial private dispute.
That's how the narrative went for over a decade in the so-called Olympic family.
It's a version of events that's been colossally shy of veracity for more than ten years.
Sheikh Ahmad has nevertheless remained an IOC member. In 2018, he suspended himself, an absurd loophole that is often granted to important IOC members and only possible because the almighty IOC deity Thomas Bach, once an ally of the Sheikh, turns a blind eye, to say the very least. In 2023, the IOC, whose so-called Ethics Commission has no independence whatsoever, suddenly found a reason to suspend Ahmad for three years in a dubious express procedure for another, far less scandalous and perhaps not even criminally relevant matter.
We will leave aside the silly statements of those posing as ethicists in the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which was dominated by the Al-Sabah family for more than four decades, as well as and in the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
Detailed summaries of these scandalous developments over the decades can be found here:
Jens Weinreich
Jens Weinreich
Jens Weinreich
Let's forget for a moment the Asian Handball Federation (AHF), where Ahmad's father Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah presided, and in whose footsteps Ahmad also followed in the IOC, the OCA and elsewhere. In the AHF, Ahmad is also self-suspended but still mentioned as president on its website:
Let's move on to the important things and a place where it wasn't just the Olympic family that negated, or played down to an unacceptable extent, the criminal case of Al-Sabah for many years, a realm where lies and false allegations were constantly spread; where important officials have not even bothered to look at the indictments, judgements and numerous other documents.
Yes, be in no doubt: that's exactly what happened. They didn't even look at it.
I have spoken to many IOC members and federation leaders and supposed ethicists over the years who have admitted that they were unaware or unfamiliar with any of the documents. The usual procedure was, as outlined in the posts we link to above, as follows: Sheikh Ahmad explained to colleagues and so-called ethicists that everything was correct and that he was just a victim of dirty dealings. That was always enough.
It remains the case, too. Sheikh Ahmad and his vassals in Kuwait and out there today spreading untruths about the details of the CPAR judgement in Geneva.
Allegedly, Ahmad has been largely exonerated and will soon be fully acquitted. You'll have to read this and other related nonsense. Like this, for example:
Let's take a look at the facts, one by one ...
We provide subscribers to THE INQUISITOR with the latest judgement in the original (French) and in an automated English translation.
So make up your own mind. But please do not forget the many other bribery scandals in which co-conspirator #2 in the Olympic family was and is involved. Sheikh Ahmad is a living Olympic scandal. Please repeat that to yourself as many times as it takes to sink in.
The conviction of Sheikh Ahmad handed down by the criminal court, the Tribunal correctionnel (TCO) in Geneva, in September 2021 was confirmed by the CPAR appeal report on 18 December 2023 – but the sentence was reduced. Ahmad still has to go to the Swiss Federal Court, which, funnily enough, resides in the Capitale Olympique in Lausanne, just two stone's throws away from the headquarters of World Aquatics, where another bribe payer and co-conspirator now resides as president: Ahmad's long-time right-hand man Husain Al-Musallam, co-conspirator #3 in a criminal FIFA case, who is hoping for IOC membership and will do anything to get it.
Ahmad and four other people who had worked for him – Matthew Parish, Hamad Al-Haroun, Stoyan Baumeyer and Vitaliy Kozachenko – were convicted of fraud and forgery in Switzerland. At the heart of the case, in Kuwait, was the lie spread by Ahmad, based on forged videos, according to which the former Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah and the former Speaker of Parliament, Jassim Al-Kharafi, had planned a coup against the Emir.
All false. All lies. Made up.
Ahmad played the leading role in this criminal construct of lies. He handed over the fake videos to the emir at the time, as summarised once again in the CPAR ruling ...
... the videos the former had handed over to the Kuwaiti authorities, allegedly attesting to acts of corruption and treason by Nasser Al-Sabah, former Prime Minister, and Jassim Alkharafi, former Speaker of the Kuwaiti Parliament. These acts allegedly took the form of an agreement to overthrow the Emir of Kuwait, financial transactions with Israel, as well as payments to Kuwaiti personalities, as well as other financial transactions involving large sums of money. These charges could have led to the death sentences of Nasser Al-Sabah and Jassim Alkharafi.
Let us read again carefully:
These charges could have led to the death sentences of Nasser Al-Sabah and Jassim Alkharafi.
For ten years this was distorted in the Olympic family in an absolutely mendacious and false manner as some kind of intra-Kuwaiti family feud. Private matter. Nothing to do with the Olympic family and therefore not to be penalised.
As we have known for decades, nothing is a private matter with Ahmad: whenever he got into trouble in Kuwait, whether because of corruption allegations (including allegations of drug trafficking, as stated in the court document, money laundering, vote buying, for example), he often mixed private matters with sporting matters. Kuwaiti sport federations, including the NOC, were suspended internationally on several occasions – until the Sheikh, the real cause of the problems, used his contacts in the IOC and FIFA - and his accomplices and vassals in sport sorted things out.
That's how it went. A matter of fact.
It was all a lie. Large-scale fraud.
The matter of fictitious treason, the coup allegedly planned by Nasser Al-Sabah and Jassim Al-Kharafi, became an international criminal case. In order to clear himself and prove the alleged authenticity of the videos presented, Sheikh Ahmad and his helpers in Switzerland and the UK staged a sham arbitration trial.
With one difference: what was possible in what felt like thousands of cases within the Olympic family – because there are no serious rules or even laws and certainly no investigators or independent judicial bodies – failed in this case because of the Swiss judiciary. Yet the Swiss judiciary is known for traditionally turning a blind eye, dragging things out and ultimately finding a solution that suits the rich and powerful.
Ahmad's only misfortune was that this time he had fallen foul of the wrong people. Nasser Al-Sabah and the family of Jassim Al-Kharafi, who died in grief over the unjustified accusations in 2015, are among the richest and most influential Kuwaitis. Money was never an issue. The Al-Kharafi family (with the Al-Kharafi Holding) is said to be worth billions. And influential too. This makes it possible to fight – and win – a long-running legal dispute.
Speaking of money, the CPAR judgement says this about Sheikh Ahmad:
He resides in Kuwait and is not politically active. He takes care of his own business and that of his family. He estimates his monthly income at USD 70,000 and his net worth at around USD 60 million.
"Not politically active" has indeed been the case again for the past few days after Ahmad was removed as defence minister in a government reshuffle.
These details, which have recently reached THE INQUISITOR from Kuwait, are interesting: The new government and the new defence minister are already starting to undo key positions that Ahmad had filled with his vassals.
In Switzerland, charges were brought against Ahmad and his accomplices on 8 November 2018. A few days later, Al-Sabah self-suspended his IOC membership and then also his ANOC presidency. In May 2017, immediately after the publication of an indictment in the FIFA criminal proceedings in the USA, in which Ahmad is listed as a bribe payer and co-conspirator together with his long-time henchman Husain Al-Musallam, he had already resigned from his position on the then FIFA executive committee.
However, Ahmad continued to serve as OCA President for three years after the indictment in Switzerland.
On 10 September 2021, all five defendants were convicted by the TCOin Geneva: the mastermind Ahmad and his four accomplices. In the case of Al-Sabah, the Criminal Court imposed a prison sentence of 15 months, as well as a further 15 months' imprisonment, which was suspended on probation.
You can read all the details in the court document, which we have made available to you here.
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah filed an appeal. He demanded that the judgement be overturned, that he be acquitted in full and that he be compensated CHF 101,177 each for the criminal trial and the appeal proceedings.
In the appeal proceedings, Ahmad presented himself as the victim of those he had paid for the fraud. His lawyers claim, among other things:
He would not have taken such risks if he knew that the arbitration procedure was flawed.
Ahmad requested an acquittal and a compensation payment for the costs of the criminal proceedings and the appeal proceedings.
In the CPAR decision, the plaintiffs' arguments are summarised as follows:
Nasser Al-Sabah:
Ahmad Al-Sabah's credibility had been called into question in Kuwait and arbitration had been the solution found with the aim of restoring it. The recognition of the award in the United Kingdom was intended to add a state aspect to arbitration, in order to give it greater credibility.
Ahmad AL-SABAH was the only one who had an interest in the sham arbitration process. He was in danger of being discredited in the world of politics and sport. He was Matthew PARISH's client and was aware of everything. He himself had admitted his involvement at times. He had paid USD 200,000 in cash and was informed of what was happening. He now claimed to have been betrayed but had changed his statements on this subject during the proceedings. It was impossible to imagine that he could have signed the documents without reading them, given his role in the government and with various sports bodies. He had conscience and will over all the constituent elements of the offence; At the very least, the subjective element was met from the point of view of possible fraud.
The Al-Kharafi family:
The crime only benefited Ahmad Al-Sabah, the aim being to provide the Emir of Kuwait with proof of the authenticity of the videos. He was the leader of the AL FINTAS group, which was named after a place in Kuwait where Ahmad al-Sabah owned a building. It was not credible that he had signed documents without reading them, or that he had not understood their meaning. He had lied about the date of their signing, as on the November 2013 letter. He was aware that the agreement was false and that the dispute did not actually exist. This agreement was created for the purpose of justifying the award, art. 177 LD IP requiring that disputes submitted to arbitration be of a patrimonial nature. At the very least, any fraud had to be imputed to him, since he had accepted the risk of this false procedure. It was not credible that he had not inquired about TREKELL, which was his opponent in litigation. He should also have realised that the expert reports and the arbitration procedure had been carried out, too quickly.
In essence, the Court of Appeal (CPAR) states, and this is only a small selection:
