France international Wissam Ben Yedder has been ordered to appear in court – after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman while drunk.
The striker, 34, is a free agent after leaving Monaco during the summer.
He was reportedly arrested in the early hours of Saturday at Cap-d’Ail, near Monaco, after a 23-year-old woman told cops he had assaulted her in his car.
French paper L’Equipe claimed armed police seized a drunken Ben Yedder at the wheel after he initially refused to stop for them.
The 19-cap player must now appear in court on October 15.
Prosecutors have called for him to be kept in custody until then after he was initially released under conditions.
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Nice prosecutor Damien Martinelli said: “Pre-trial detention appears to be the only way to prevent any risk of [Ben Yedder] putting pressure on the victim.
“To prevent a repeat of the deeds – he’s under legal supervision for rape after all – and to ensure that he remains available to the legal system given there’s a real chance he might escape.”
Ben Yedder has meanwhile been ordered to not contact his alleged victim, stay out of bars and nightclubs, report to police twice a week and not leave his home Alpes-Maritimes region.
The former Toulouse and Sevilla striker’s lawyer Hasna Louze declined to comment.
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Ben Yedder is already at the centre of a police enquiry after he and his brother were accused of raping and sexually assaulting two women in 2021.
The Paris-born footballer was also fined and given a suspended jail term for tax offences last year.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
