Switzerland's attorney general resigns over Fifa meeting cover up during corruption investigation

The most senior lawyer in Switzerland has resigned after a court concluded he covered up a meeting with Gianni Infantino during a Fifa corruption investigation.

Michael Lauber, the Swiss attorney general and federal prosecutor, denied allegations last June that he lied over secret meetings with the governing body's president. However, the supervisory body that oversees his office has now ruled he “seriously violated his official and legal duties”.

Lauber had previously clung to his job despite damning reports from a government watchdog and calls to quit from campaigners over slow progress in other corruption cases, ranging from Brazil’s Petrobras to Malaysian state fund 1MDB.

The 54 year-old, who has been Switzerland’s most senior state lawyer since 2012, denied lying over Infantino meetings, but offered to resign to protect the reputation of his institution.

“If they [the court] do not believe me as attorney general, then the Office of the Attorney General will be harmed,” he said in a statement. Narrowly re-elected last year, he was also facing a parliamentary impeachment process, while a special prosecutor is reviewing criminal complaints against him. The Federal Administrative Court ruled on Friday that he committed several breaches of duty, lied to investigators and made “implausible” statements about the meeting with Infantino, who denies any wrongdoing.

Fifa was embroiled in the worst corruption scandal in its history in 2015, which led to its then president, Sepp Blatter, being banned from the sport while several dozen officials were indicted in the United States on corruption-related charges. The governing body said it was legitimate and legal for its president to meet with the attorney general.

Upholding only part of his appeal against a punishment from the Supervisory Authority for the Office of the Attorney General, the court reduced a punitive cut in Lauber’s pay. While Lauber had acknowledged two meetings with Infantino in 2016, he had denied a third meeting reported by media to have occurred in 2017, prompting a disciplinary probe by the agency that supervises the attorney general’s office.

He later said he did not recall the third meeting but that it must have occurred based on diary entries and text messages.