French prosecutors on Friday called for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) defender Achraf Hakimi to face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023 which the Moroccan international denies.
The Nanterre prosecutor’s office told AFP that they had asked the investigating judge to refer the rape case 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 key role in PSG’s first Champions League title, scoring the opening goal in a 5-0 victory over Inter Milan in the May final.
Hakimi, who helped Morocco reach the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman.
Hakimi allegedly paid for his accuser to visit his home on February 25, 2023, in the Paris neighbourhood of Boulogne-Billancourt, when his wife and children were on vacation.
Following the meeting, the woman went to a police station to report rape and was questioned.
Although the woman refused to file a formal accusation, prosecutors chose to charge the player.
She told authorities she contacted Hakimi on Instagram in January 2023.
On the night in issue, she claimed to have travelled to his house in a cab paid for by Hakimi.
According to AFP, she informed authorities that Hakimi began kissing her and made non-consensual sexual approaches before raping her.
She stated she was able to break free and text a friend who came to pick her up.
AFP contacted them the following Friday’s development. Fanny Colin, Hakimi’s lawyer, condemned prosecutors’ request for a trial as “incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case’s elements.”
“We, along with Achraf Hakimi, remain as calm as we were at the start of the proceedings.
“If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal,” she continued.
According to Colin, her client had “been the target of an attempted extortion.”
“Nothing in this case suggests an attempted extortion,” Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, stated.
“My client welcomes this news with immense relief,” she told AFP.
“We will not tolerate any smear or destabilisation campaign, as is unfortunately still too often the case for women who have the courage to report the rape of which they are victims,” she added.
Hakimi, the son of a cleaning lady and a street seller from Morocco who have lived in Spain since the 1980s, was born in Getafe, a southern Madrid neighbourhood.
Hakimi progressed through Real Madrid’s development system before joining Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund in 2018.
He made 73 appearances for the German club.
He transferred to Inter Milan in 2020, then to PSG in 2021, where he has established himself as an important member of the team.
In Qatar, Hakimi was a key member of the Morocco team that became the first African or Arab nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
