PSG star Hakimi to face rape trial as French court rejects appeal

A French court has upheld a decision to send Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco defender Achraf Hakimi to trial over an alleged rape, according to a judicial source cited by AFP.

Hakimi, 27, had appealed the decision after an appeals court ruled on June 19 that he should stand trial in a criminal court over allegations dating back to 2023.

The footballer has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Hakimi challenged the appeals court’s decision before the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court for civil and criminal matters.

However, the court on Wednesday upheld the decision for the case to proceed to trial.

The appeal was Hakimi’s final legal recourse. In February, he was ordered to stand trial before the criminal court in the Hauts-de-Seine department on the rape charge.

Hakimi challenged that initial order and then appealed to the Court of Cassation after the Versailles appeals court upheld the decision in June.

Contacted on Wednesday, Hakimi’s lawyer, Fanny Colin, did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

“After three and a half years of legal battles, after being slandered and dragged through the mud by Achraf Hakimi’s defence, my client is determined to obtain justice; she will fight to the very end,” the plaintiff’s lawyer, Rachel-Flore Pardo, said in a statement sent to AFP.

In February 2023, a woman then aged 24 told police in the Val-de-Marne region southeast of Paris that Hakimi had raped her.

The plaintiff said she met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram and went to his home in a taxi ordered by the player, a police source said at the time.

She claimed that the player kissed her, touched her without her consent and then raped her.

She said she managed to push him away and text a friend, who came to pick her up.

Hakimi was charged with rape a few days later.

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