Prosecutors call for PSG's Achraf Hakimi to face rape trial

French prosecutors on Friday called for Paris Saint-Germain star Achraf Hakimi to face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023 which the Moroccan international denies.

The Nanterre prosecutor's office told AFP that they had requested that the investigating judge refer the rape charge to a criminal court.

"It is now up to the investigating magistrate to make a decision within the framework of his order," the prosecutor's office told AFP in a statement.

Hakimi, 26, played a major role in PSG's run to their first Champions League title, the full-back scoring the opener in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in May.

Hakimi, who helped Morocco to their historic progress to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March, 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman.

Hakimi allegedly paid for his accuser to travel to his home on February 25, 2023, in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt while his wife and children were away on holiday.

The woman went to a police station following the encounter alleging rape and was questioned by police.

Although the woman refused to make a formal accusation, prosecutors decided to press charges against the player.

She told police at the time that she had met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram.

On the night in question she said she had travelled to his house in a taxi paid for by Hakimi. She told police Hakimi had started kissing her and making non-consensual sexual advances, before raping her.

She said she managed to break free to text a friend who came to pick her up.

'Attempted extortion'

Contacted by AFP after Friday's development Hakimi's lawyer Fanny Colin described the call by prosecutors for a trial as "incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case's elements".

"We, along with Achraf Hakimi, remain as calm as we were at the start of the proceedings.

"If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal," she continued.

According to Colin, her client had "been the target of an attempted extortion".

"Nothing in this case suggests an attempted extortion," Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, said.

"My client welcomes this news with immense relief," she told AFP.

"We will not tolerate any smear or destabilisation campaign, as is unfortunately still too often the case for women who have the courage to report the rape of which they are victims," she added.

The son of a cleaning lady and a street vendor, both Moroccans who have lived in Spain since the 1980s, Hakimi was born in Getafe, a southern suburb of Madrid.

Hakimi came through the youth system at Real Madrid before joining Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund in 2018.

He moved to Inter Milan in 2020 and then on to PSG in 2021 where he has established himself as an integral part of the team.

In Qatar, Hakimi was a cornerstone of the Morocco team that became the first African or Arab nation to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.