PSG star Hakimi faces trial for alleged rape

Paris Saint-Germain footballer Achraf Hakimi, a key player in their Champions League-winning side last season, is to stand trial charged with raping a young woman, his lawyer and a French prosecutor told AFP Tuesday. 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 27-year-old Moroccan international, who played a pivotal role in Morocco becoming the first African and Arab side to reach the World Cup semi-finals when they made the last four in 2022, denies any wrongdoing.

“Today, a rape accusation is enough to justify a trial, even though I contest it and everything proves that it is false,” he wrote on X on Tuesday. “I await this trial calmly, which will allow the truth to come out publicly.” Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin said a trial had been ordered and the prosecutor in the Nanterre suburb of Paris confirmed it. “A trial has been ordered on the basis of an accusation that rests solely on the word of a woman who obstructed all investigations, refused all medical examinations and DNA tests, refused to allow her mobile phone to be examined, and refused to give the name of a key witness,” Colin said.

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. PSG coach Luis Enrique, when asked about it at a Tuesday press conference ahead of the Champions League play-off second leg match with Monaco, said: “This matter is in the hands of the authorities.”