A former Paris St.-Germain girls’s soccer participant was arrested and detained by the police for a second time on Friday as a part of an investigation right into a violent assault on considered one of her teammates final 12 months by masked males wielding a steel bar.
The participant, Aminata Diallo, was taken into custody early Friday morning, the police in Versailles, close to Paris, mentioned in a press release.
The assault grew to become headline information in France and past final 12 months due to the character of the assault on the teammate, Kheira Hamrouai, and the next arrest of Diallo. The cinematic story line — masked males wielding a steel bar on a darkish road, stories of marital infidelity and unsubstantiated stories {that a} struggle for enjoying time had factored within the assault — has led filmmakers to method each girls about collaborating in tasks.
However it additionally convulsed each the P.S.G. staff and the French girls’s nationwide staff, on which each girls had performed, and it even led to the breakup of the wedding of a celebrated former French males’s participant, Eric Abidal. Abidal’s spouse, Hayet Abidal, filed for divorce final 12 months, claiming that her husband had admitted to an extramarital affair with Hamraoui.
The police assertion launched on Friday mentioned that the case was underneath the management of an investigating Justice of the Peace who would decide its subsequent steps. The assertion added that 4 different arrests had been made as a part of the investigation.
Diallo has maintained her innocence from the beginning, and she or he was launched with out being charged after her first detention final 12 months. Neither she nor her lawyer has made any public feedback since her new arrest on Friday.
The assault on Hamraoui adopted a staff dinner final November at an upscale restaurant in a park on the outskirts of Paris. Diallo had supplied Hamraoui a experience residence however, after dropping off a 3rd teammate at her residence, their journey was interrupted when two males emerged in entrance of the club-issued automotive that Diallo was driving, opened the passenger door and dragged Hamraoui out. One of many males then started beating Hamraoui with a steel bar, specializing in her legs and leaving her lower and bruised. Diallo informed the police that she was pinned to the steering wheel by one other man whereas the assault came about.
Every week after the assault, Diallo was arrested, and she or he was saved in police custody for 36 hours. The Versailles prosecutor’s workplace confirmed on the time that an acquaintance of Diallo’s, a person in Lyon who had been in jail on unrelated prices, had been questioned after which launched.
The incident has wrecked the careers of each girls. Diallo, 27, retired from skilled soccer this summer season after her contract with P.S.G. expired. Hamraoui, 32, stays underneath contract at P.S.G., however she is in a dispute with the membership about her therapy after having not been chosen to play by the staff’s present administration.
Each gamers had been left off the France squad that competed on this summer season’s European girls’s championship in England.
Diallo’s lawyer, Mourad Battikh, didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Friday. Earlier this week, nevertheless, after a number of males had been arrested in reference to the assault, Battikh had mentioned that there was no hyperlink between them and Diallo. “Aminata is harmless and has claimed her innocence because the starting,” he mentioned.
In France, detention shouldn’t be unusual in police investigations. However most often, prosecutors should cost suspects or launch them inside 48 hours. The investigation can proceed, nevertheless, and Diallo, or anybody else, might be charged at a later date if proof implicates them in a criminal offense.
The decide liable for the case might determine the subsequent steps quickly, the Versailles police mentioned. Diallo and the others arrested this week are scheduled to make an look earlier than the decide on Friday.