PSG Star Hakimi Returns to Training Amid Looming Rape Trial, Faces 15-Year Sentence

Achraf Hakimi displays a disconcerting serenity. He arrived around 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, aboard a black van with tinted windows driven by his personal driver, at the Poissy training center. His legal troubles have apparently not dampened his morale. "His teammates have not noticed any change in attitude or concern in the one who, convinced of having nothing to reproach himself for, intends to remain serene," reports Le Parisien. The European champions have less than a week to prepare for the UEFA Super Cup, on Wednesday, August 13, against Tottenham. The Ligue 1 season will then have to start on August 17, with a trip to the Beaujoire stadium in Nantes.

On August 1, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office requested that Hakimi be indicted before the departmental criminal court of Hauts-de-Seine to be tried for rape. It is now up to the investigating judge to confirm or not the terms of the final indictment of the prosecution, signed on August 1. The Moroccan right-back of PSG faces up to fifteen years in prison in the event of a trial for rape.

The facts date back to February 25, 2023. A 24-year-old woman had gone to the police station in Nogent-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne) and had stated that she had been raped by the Moroccan defender at his home on February 25, 2023. She had claimed to have been forcibly kissed and to have suffered digital penetration despite her resistance. She had added that she had managed to push him away and specified that a friend, contacted by SMS, had come to pick her up.

The alleged victim had not filed a complaint, but the Nanterre prosecutor’s office had taken over the case. On March 3, 2023, the Moroccan player had been indicted for "rape" by an investigating judge and placed under judicial supervision, after being taken into custody and the opening of a judicial investigation by the prosecutor’s office. Hearings during which he had denied any aggression or rape. The Moroccan player had even denounced an attempted extortion against him and initiated proceedings against the complainant.