The scandal over the falsification of the passport of Real Madrid center Marcus Slaughter comes to trial almost ten years later. The criminal court 3 of Madrid has everything ready to judge those responsible for preparing the false document starting today, although the main protagonist of the case, Marcus Slaughter, who the justice system has tried to locate without success during the last five years to serve the summons.
The Real Madrid basketball center, of American nationality, played in the Copa del Rey and 13 ACB League games with a false passport from Equatorial Guinea, which allowed him to free up a non-EU place under the Cotonou agreement signed between the EU, 78 African states and other Caribbean and Pacific states. This agreement allowed players who adopted the nationality of one of the signatory countries to acquire community status.
FC Barcelona will be present at the trial as a private accusation, asking for two and a half years in prison for the player and his agents, and if the case ends in conviction it will activate the administrative procedure to claim the withdrawal of the 2015 League and Cup title that Real Madrid won with Slaughter’s alleged improper alignment.
Slaughter Passport
Even if the former center does not appear, the trial will continue against the rest of the accused and when Slaughter is found, a hearing will be held only against him. Andy Panko, a former Fuenlabrada player who also acquired a forged passport with the same number as Slaughter, will sit on the bench. Both players shared a representative, Julián Aranda, also accused, who was in charge of processing the issuance of the document. To do this, he contacted Hugo López, former Madrid youth team coach who at that time coached the Malabo Kings, a team from Equatorial Guinea, and who liaised with a player of his who was also a former member of the Madrid reserve team, Richard Nguema, to entrust him with the preparation of the document. “On the first of February 2015, he prepared by himself, or through a person of unknown identity but who acted on his behalf, two passports of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea,” the Prosecutor’s Office maintains in its brief. .
The result could not have been more botched. Slaughter and Panko had two Equatoguinean passports with the same number A001696 and with two pages missing. In addition, both had two certificates of authenticity supposedly issued by the Consul General of Equatorial Guinea in the Canary Archipelago. The ambassador of Equatorial Guinea in Madrid sent a letter to the court confirming that the passports of Slaughter and Andy Panko “were not legal but falsified through fraudulent methods.”
The prosecution demands one year and four months in prison for Slaughter and his agents
The Prosecutor’s Office demands a sentence of 1 year and 4 months in prison for the former players and one year and ten months for the rest of the accused. They are all charged with an alleged crime of document falsification. The Association of Basketball Clubs (ACB) requests the same sentence as Barça – two and a half years in prison. The time that has passed – almost a decade since the facts were discovered – will play in favor of the accused, who may see an eventual sentence reduced due to the mitigation of undue delays. In the case, Real Madrid is not listed as being investigated as a legal entity, considering that although it benefited from the crime, by being able to count on Slaughter as a community member, it acted in good faith.
The judicial process was concluded in 2019 when all the accused had already testified, including Slaughter, but the delay of the investigating court in notifying those investigated of the end of the investigation and the opening of the oral trial delayed the process for almost five years. Added to this was the inability to find Slaughter, who has an international arrest warrant pending, which, however, has been of no use.
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