No turning back. Achraf Hakimi even goes to trial for rape

O The Court of Cassation, the highest French court, rejected the appeal brought by the defence of Hakimi, maintaining the decision determining its judgment before the Hauts-de-Seine criminal court in the Paris region, confirmed to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) judicial source.

The decision arises after, in June, in the middle of World War 2026, the Versailles Appeal Court confirmed the referral of the Moroccan defence to trial, following a decision taken at first instance in February.

The player then appealed to the Cassation Court, which now confirmed the decision, according to AFP.

The captain of the selection of Morocco is accused of violating a 24-year-old girl at his residence in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the outskirts of Paris, in 2023, a crime that has denied since the beginning of the investigations.

The defense of Paris Saint-Germain, a colleague of the Portuguese internationals Nuno Mendes, João Neves and Vitinha in the team of French champions and two-time European champions, has always reaffirmed their innocence, ensuring that they have maintained only mutual contacts and consented to the whistleblower and regretting that their notoriety has made it a target of the process.

In June, after knowing the decision of the Versailles Court of Appeal, Hakimi claimed to be “anxious” for the trial, considering that he would finally have the opportunity to talk about the case.

Contacted today by AFP, Hakimi's lawyer Fanny Colin, did not make a timely statement about the decision.

On the contrary, the young woman’s lawyer, Rachel-Flore Pardo, stated, in a statement sent to AFP, that her client, after three and a half years of judicial battle, is determined to obtain justice and bring the case to the end.

In the same statement, Bertrand Périer, a civil lawyer before the Versailles Court of Appeal, considered that the decision confirms the soundness and accuracy of the reasoning adopted by that court.