Hakimi Appeals Hearing: A Defining Moment Ahead

Achraf Hakimi is heading into one of the most important weeks of his life, and it has nothing to do with a football pitch.

On the outskirts of Paris, the Versailles appeals court will examine the case of the 27-year-old Morocco international, who is set to stand trial on a charge of raping a woman. The hearing will determine whether that charge stands as is, is reduced to a lesser offence, or reshaped before any trial date is fixed. If his appeal fails and the charge is not downgraded, Hakimi will face a full criminal trial at a later date.

The case dates back to February 2023. A 24-year-old woman told police in Val-de-Marne, southeast of Paris, that Hakimi had raped her. After her complaint, the Paris Saint-Germain defender was formally charged and placed under judicial supervision. In February this year, the investigating authorities decided the case should go to trial.

Hakimi denies any wrongdoing.

His lawyer, Fanny Colin, contacted by AFP, declined to comment ahead of the appeals hearing. During an earlier referral hearing, however, Colin attacked the foundations of the case, arguing that “the accusation rests solely on the word of a woman who obstructed all investigations, refused all medical examinations and DNA tests (and) refused to give the name of key witnesses”.

According to a police source at the time, the complainant said she first came into contact with Hakimi in January 2023 via Instagram. She then travelled to his home in a taxi ordered by the player. Once there, she claimed, Hakimi kissed her, touched her without her consent and then raped her. She told investigators she managed to push him away and send a text message to a friend, who came to collect her.

Those starkly opposing accounts now sit at the heart of a case that cuts across sport, celebrity and the justice system. The appeals court’s decision on the legal characterisation of the alleged offence will shape everything that follows.

All of this unfolds while Hakimi’s football career remains on the highest stage. The right-back joined PSG in 2021 from Inter Milan, having previously worn the colours of Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. On the field he has become one of the most influential full-backs in the game, his surging runs and set-piece nerve helping Morocco script history at the 2022 World Cup, where they became the first African and Arab side to reach the semi-finals.

He is expected to be in the PSG team when the defending champions face Arsenal in the Champions League final on May 30 in Budapest, a showpiece that would normally dominate any discussion around his name. Beyond that, he is certain to be part of Morocco’s squad when they open their World Cup campaign against Brazil on June 13 in New Jersey in Group C, which also includes Scotland and Haiti.

For now, though, the spotlight shifts from Budapest and New Jersey to a courtroom west of Paris, where judges will decide how—and on what terms—Achraf Hakimi will be tried.