Morocco's Hakimi plays in World Cup despite being sent for rape trial

Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi will line up in the World Cup game against Scotland on Friday after an appeals court in France confirmed he must stand trial on rape charges.

Paris Saint-Germain defender Hakimi is facing allegations that he raped a 24-year-old woman in the Paris region in 2023, which he denies.

A French appeals court on Friday confirmed that Moroccan football star Achraf Hakimi will face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023, which the Paris Saint-Germain defender denies.

In February 2023, a woman then aged 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 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.