French prosecutors on Friday, August 1, called for Moroccan international Achraf Hakimi to face trial for the alleged r@pe of a woman in 2023, which the Paris Saint-Germain player denies.
The Nanterre prosecutor’s office told AFP that they had requested that the investigating judge refer the r@pe charge to a criminal court.
“It is now up to the investigating magistrate to make a decision within the framework of his order,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP in a statement.
Hakimi, 26, played a major role in PSG’s run to their first Champions League title, the full-back scoring the opener in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in May.
Hakimi, who helped Morocco to their historic charge to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman.
On the night in question she said she had traveled to his house in d by police. Although the woman refused to make a formal accusation, prosecutors decided to press charges against the player. She told police at the time that she had met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram.
Contacted by AFP after Friday’s development, Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin described the night in question she said she had travelled to his house in a taxi paid for by Hakimi. She told police Hakimi had started kissing her and making non consensual sexual advances, before raping her, a police source told AFP at the time. She said she managed to break free to text a friend who came to pick her up.
Contacted by the publication after Friday’s development Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin described the call by prosecutors for a trial as “incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case’s elements”. “If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal,” she added.
“My client welcomes this news with immense relief,” Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, told AFP.
The investigating judge is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether Hakimi will stand trial.
