‘I calmly await the truth’: PSG star Achraf Hakimi to face trial in alleged rape

Achraf Hakimi, a key Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) wingback, who played a handy role in helping his team win its maiden Champions League crown last year, is to stand trial charged with raping a young woman, his lawyer Fanny Colin and a French prosecutor said on Tuesday (Feb 24). Per the latest reports, a woman in February 2023, aged 24 then, informed police in Val-de-Marne, southeast of Paris, that Hakimi raped her. The Moroccan international, who was crucial in helping Morocco reach its maiden FIFA World Cup semi-final in 2022, has denied any wrongdoing, while squashing all such reports as false in his latest X post.

"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."

Meanwhile, Hakimi's lawyer 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.

What happened behind the scenes?

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. The woman in question added that 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 Tuesday's press conference, ahead of the Champions League play-off second leg match with Monaco, said: "This matter is in the hands of the authorities."

The plaintiff's lawyer, Rachel-Flore Pardo, said her client was relieved to hear the case was going to court. She said the judiciary had been exemplary in handling the case. But its treatment in general showed "there are still areas where the #MeToo movement has not yet breached the sound barrier, chiefly in men's football," she added.

Hakimi, born in Spain to a Moroccan mother, trained with Real Madrid, making his senior debut for them in 2017. The right-back was also one of Morocco's superstars during the Africa Cup of Nations, with the host team making it to the final, where they lost in a chaotic climax to Senegal.

Hakimi joined PSG in 2021, after stints with Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan.

(With inputs from AFP)