A French appeals court on Friday confirmed that Moroccan football star Achraf Hakimi will stand trial over allegations that he raped a woman in 2023, claims the Paris Saint-Germain defender has repeatedly denied.
The case stems from a complaint filed in February 2023, when a 24-year-old woman told police in the Val-de-Marne region, southeast of Paris, that Hakimi had sexually assaulted her.
Hakimi, PSG’s right-back and captain of the Moroccan national team, has consistently maintained his innocence. The ruling comes as Morocco prepares for its second match of the 2026 World Cup against Scotland on Friday.
Shortly after the Versailles Court of Appeal upheld the decision to proceed to trial, Hakimi posted on X that he had been “waiting for this trial since day one.”
“At last, I’ll be able to speak,” he wrote.
No date has yet been set for the trial, which will be heard by 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 ruling brought her client “relief and hope.”
According to a police source, the woman told investigators she met Hakimi on Instagram in January 2023 and later travelled to his home in a taxi arranged by the player.
She alleged that Hakimi kissed and touched her without her consent before raping her. The woman said she was able to push him away and send a text message to a friend, who came to pick her up.
Speaking publicly for the first time in an interview with Mediapart published on Thursday, the woman, identified under 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 said.
