Achraf Hakimi will stand trial for rape after an investigating judge ordered the case forward in February 2026, capping more than three years of proceedings around allegations he has always denied. French prosecutors confirmed the move on Friday, and no date has yet been set for the hearing.
The case is back in the spotlight because Hakimi wrote on social media on Friday that he had been waiting for the trial since day one, putting his public response alongside a legal step that now sends the matter into open court. He is not just a defendant in the abstract: he is Morocco's captain and a Paris St-Germain defender, due to lead Morocco out for their second World Cup fixture against Scotland on Friday at 23:00 BST.
A woman accused Hakimi of raping her at his home in Paris in 2023 when she was 24, and the Nanterre public prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation in March 2023. French media reported that he failed with a recent appeal to have the trial dismissed, a setback that suggests the judge found enough material to keep the case alive even after the defence pushed back. The evidence behind that decision has not been made public, but the legal threshold has now been crossed: the file has moved from investigation to trial.
That shift matters beyond the courtroom because Hakimi could face difficulties entering Canada or Mexico if Morocco's knockout-stage matches are played outside the United States, where all three group stage fixtures are being held. The immediate question is no longer whether the case will reach trial, but when it will begin and how a formal criminal process will sit alongside a World Cup campaign that could yet carry him across borders. Rachel-Flore Pardo said the decision brought relief and hope to her client after years in which the defence, in her view, dragged her through the mud; Hakimi, meanwhile, says he is finally ready to speak.
