French court orders Hakimi to stand trial over rape allegation

A French appeals court confirmed on Friday that Moroccan footballer Achraf Hakimi will stand trial for suspected rape of a woman in 2023, a charge he denies. In February 2023, a lady, then 24, told police in the Val-de-Marne region southeast of Paris that Hakimi had raped her. The PSG right-back and captain of the Moroccan national team, whose second match of the 2026 World Cup kicks off on Friday against Scotland, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Shortly after the Versailles Court of Appeal delivered its ruling, Hakimi wrote on X that he had been “waiting for this trial since day one.” “At last, I’ll be able to speak,” he said. A date has not been announced for the start of the trial at the criminal court in the Hauts-de-Seine department. “This confirmation was expected. Nothing here says that he is guilty of anything, he remains steadfast in his defence,” Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin said. The plaintiff’s lawyer Rachel-Flore Pardo said the decision brought her client “relief and hope”. 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. Speaking to the press for the first time in a Mediapart article published Thursday, the woman, using the pseudonym Jeanne, said she wanted a trial “to defend myself, to be heard”. “I want to explain myself. I want people to believe me,” she added.