Achraf Hakimi to Stand Trial Over Rape Allegation as French Court Rejects Final Appeal

A French court has upheld a decision for Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco defender Achraf Hakimi to stand trial over a rape allegation dating back to 2023, a judicial source told AFP on Wednesday.

Hakimi, 27, had challenged the decision through France’s highest court for civil and criminal matters, the Court of Cassation, after the Versailles appeals court confirmed in June that he should face trial.

The latest ruling represents Hakimi’s final legal avenue to challenge the decision to send the case to trial. In February, he was ordered to appear before a criminal court in the Hauts-de-Seine department over the allegation.

Hakimi has repeatedly denied the accusation and previously challenged the initial order before appealing to the Court of Cassation after the Versailles court upheld it.

His lawyer, Fanny Colin, did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on Wednesday.

The complainant’s lawyer, Rachel-Flore Pardo, said her client remained determined to pursue the case. “After three and a half years of legal battles, after being slandered and dragged through the mud by Achraf Hakimi’s defence, my client is determined to obtain justice; she will fight to the very end,” Pardo said in a statement sent to AFP.

The allegation dates to February 2023, when a woman who was then 24 reported to police in the Val-de-Marne region, southeast of Paris, that Hakimi had raped her. According to a police source cited by AFP, the woman said she had met Hakimi on Instagram in January that year and later travelled to his home in a taxi ordered by the footballer.

She alleged that Hakimi kissed and touched her without her consent before raping her. The woman also told investigators that she managed to push him away and send a message to a friend, who subsequently came to collect her.

The case will now proceed to trial, where the allegations against Hakimi will be examined by the criminal court. The decision to send him to trial is not itself a finding of guilt, and Hakimi remains entitled to the presumption of innocence.