Diallo, Aminata (1995- )

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    P.S.G. Attack, Still a Mystery, Ended Two Women’s World Cup Dreams

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    An assault case that rattled one of France’s best soccer teams remains unresolved despite a series of arrests. Its main characters have paid a heavy price.Aminata Diallo was being escorted from her foul-smelling holding cell to an interview room inside the Hôtel de Police in Versailles the first time she heard the name Tonya Harding.Harding’s name is infamous in sports, of course. A decorated American figure skater, she was a central figure in the notorious case involving the assault of her biggest rival only weeks before the 1994 Winter Olympics. The scandal — a sudden and violent attack by a mystery man; accusations and denials; tabloid headlines — led to worldwide attention and, years later, a feature-length movie about Harding. But to Diallo, a 28-year-old French soccer player being led up a police station stairwell, the mention of her name — “Have you heard of Tonya Harding?” — produced only a blank stare.Diallo would quickly learn, however, that the police had reason to ask.Harding’s rival, Nancy Kerrigan, had been attacked by a man who beat her on the legs in an attempt to keep her from competing. Now, in France, a generation later, the police suspected a similar motive in an attack on Kheira Hamraoui, Diallo’s teammate at the French club Paris St.-Germain. Hamraoui had been dragged out of Diallo’s car on a cold November night in 2021 and, like Kerrigan, beaten on her legs in a clear attempt to injure her.It would take almost a year, and another spell in detention for Diallo, before the police officer’s offhand question became a formal accusation. Prosecutors last September charged Diallo with aggravated assault in the attack on Hamraoui. Documents in the case and leaks to the French news media have accused Diallo of masterminding a premeditated attack. The goal, that theory goes, was to eliminate a rival of Diallo’s for a spot in the lineup at P.S.G., one of the best teams in women’s soccer, and on the roster of the French national team, which will be among the favorites at the Women’s World Cup, which begins July 20.“Lots of people would like it to be me, but that’s not the reality,” Diallo said in an interview in Spain, where she had been trying to resurrect her career. “Tonya Harding, she did it. I didn’t.”Doubts, and QuestionsWith its parallels to a decades-old scandal; its themes of race and professional rivalry; and its unlikely cast of elite women’s athletes and shadowy characters, it is no surprise that the case continues to draw interest, or that it has spawned competing documentary projects.Diallo’s guilt or innocence is no clearer today than it was that morning in the police station in Versailles. A trial date is yet to be announced. But the consequences continue to ripple outward.The central police station in Versailles, where Diallo was brought for questioning.James Hill for The New York TimesFriendships have ended, as has at least one marriage. Two locker rooms were divided. Diallo was exiled from Paris. Hamraoui, too, became an exile in her own way, ostracized by some of her teammates and eventually forced out of her club.The police’s case apparently rests on text messages sent by Diallo, some suspicious web searches and a claim by at least one of the men charged in the assault that he had been acting on behalf of Diallo, even though he admitted the order had not come directly from her.Diallo and her legal team insist the charges are the actions of a desperate police force looking to secure convictions in a high-profile case, of a case built on flimsy connections and untrustworthy sources.Diallo said she views the documentary offers as a sort of compensation for everything that she has lost, like the privacy and anonymity she once enjoyed as a stalwart, if unspectacular, soccer professional, but, more materially, for the new contract with P.S.G. that she insists was all but certain before the attack changed the direction of her career and life.“I think for them it’s interesting whether I am guilty or not,” Diallo said of the filmmakers who have approached her.The charges she faces — three counts of aggravated assault and criminal assault — came after her second stay in custody and were accompanied by an order not to enter Paris or engage with her former teammates on P.S.G. That was how she found herself in Spain this spring, nibbling patatas bravas and garlic shrimp at a beachside restaurant in Valencia, her career saved only by a short-term deal to play for Levante, which has now ended.Hamraoui has left P.S.G., too; she was released at the end of the season after not being offered a new deal. Her departure was not a quiet one: On her way out, she accused the club of ostracizing her by treating her differently from her teammates, of victimizing her again.“In addition to the trauma I suffered that night, I would face this indifference, this cruelty, not to say a form of abuse toward me,” Hamraoui wrote in a book published recently that has been serialized in the French sports newspaper L’Equipe.“The squad no longer speaks to me, and P.S.G. has only one objective: that I leave as quickly as possible,” Hamraoui said. “They treat me like a plague victim.”Kheira Hamraoui training with the Paris St.-Germain women’s team in September 2022.Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA, via ShutterstockIn Spain, Diallo’s life became a stripped-down version of what went before. Apart from training sessions, she spent most of her time alone at a rented apartment. (Qatar-owned P.S.G. had provided a home and a car, the one involved in the attack.) She was not a standout for her new team, and was often deployed as a substitute, a role she was grateful for, and accepted.“I’ve found it difficult to find the top, top level,” she said as the now finished season meandered toward its conclusion. “I’ve lost the pleasure to play. I’m playing with injustice.”Diallo contends that she has been wronged, that she is also a victim in the Hamraoui affair. Investigators in France contend she is at the heart of the conspiracy.Details of their case, leaked to the French news media, paint Diallo as the driving force of the attack on Hamraoui. The men who have been charged with the assault itself are said to have told the police that they believed they were acting on behalf of Diallo, who was driving the car when it was stopped and when Hamraoui was yanked out and beaten on her legs with an iron bar. Text messages from Diallo disparaging Hamraoui were discovered after the police seized her cellphone and computer, as were online searches for phrases like “breaking a kneecap” and “deadly cocktail of drugs.”In an interview last November at the offices of her lawyers in Paris, shortly after she was formally charged, Diallo offered explanations. The police had ignored all the positive comments about Hamraoui she had made to friends and associates, she said. The online searches were not unusual, she contended, for an athlete concerned with injuries and health.But she also contends that her race and background — she is a Black woman from a working-class neighborhood in Grenoble — had not only led the police to jump to conclusions about her, but others as well.“In France, when there’s a case like that, the media are quick to assume that you’re guilty,” she said. “They are going to bring up where you’re from right away, which is an argument to show that you are capable of doing that.”Now, in Valencia, Diallo produced her phone and brandished a screenshot of a diagram published by the French daily Le Parisien that used arrows and boxes to purportedly show links between the men involved in the attack, Diallo and unknown intermediaries. The fact that after all the investigations, the phone taps and the listening devices placed in Diallo’s home, the police still had not found any direct link between her and the arrested men highlighted the weakness of the case against her, Diallo said. She has, she added, “more hate” toward the investigators than Hamraoui, who fell out with Diallo and other teammates after they suggested she, and others at P.S.G., could have been involved in the attack.“It’s not her trying to find a case against me,” Diallo said of Hamraoui. “I don’t give a damn about her.”Choosing SidesAmong her protestations of innocence, Diallo pointed to messages sent by her former agent, Sonia Souid, who also represents Hamraoui. Diallo argued that those messages undermine the police’s belief that she orchestrated the attack out of professional jealousy.In one, a voice note sent about two weeks before the attack and played for a New York Times reporter, Souid told Diallo that she had met with P.S.G.’s sporting director. The club was pleased with Diallo’s performances, Souid reported, and was eager to make an offer to extend her contract, which was about to expire, for two seasons.Souid, who is one of the most influential agents in women’s soccer in France, said in an interview that while negotiations had not started, the club had made its intentions clear.Diallo playing for P.S.G. in 2021. She is now barred from contacting her former teammates.Aurelien Meunier/PSG, via Getty ImagesBut weeks after the November 2021 attack, Souid’s relationship with Diallo ended in a tearful meeting. The player informed the agent that she could no longer be represented by her because of her ties to Hamraoui. In March 2022, Souid said she met with police investigators. She declined to reveal what she was asked, but said the meeting had left her shaken.“The questions they asked me made me think something very wrong has happened,” Souid said.She suggested the police had covertly listened not only to Diallo’s conversations but also hers and those of others in the course of their investigation. “They knew everything,” Souid said. “They knew the exact moment calls were made and what was being said, and not just by me.”Souid said she had always found Diallo to be polite, respectful and serious in their interactions. But as details of the case filtered out, and as she processed the questions she had been asked by the police, she said she began to wonder whether Diallo had “another side.”Left OutAs the investigation continues, and as Diallo and Hamraoui — now both out of contract — await the next developments, the soccer world rumbles on toward what will be the biggest event in women’s soccer this year, the Women’s World Cup.Diallo will not be there; she had been a fringe player on France’s national team at the time of the attack, and the notoriety of her case and her long layoff — not to mention the court orders to stay away from her former P.S.G. teammates — effectively ended her international career.Hamraoui, who appeared for France as recently as February, had held out hope of playing her way onto the French team headed to Australia and New Zealand, even though her presence on the squad would not be universally welcomed by some, including a group of P.S.G. players close to Diallo and still furious at Hamraoui’s early insinuations that other players from the club might have been involved in her assault.Souid, Hamraoui’s agent, had harbored similar optimism. “The Americans are several times World Cup champions and all the players don’t like each other,” she said this spring.Hamraoui challenging Denmark’s Kathrine Moller Kuhl in February. She was left off France’s roster for the Women’s World Cup.Jean-Francois Monier/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBut when France’s new coach, Hervé Renard, announced his preliminary roster for the tournament, Hamraoui’s name was not on it. The decision prompted one French newspaper to run a poll asking whether the decision to omit her was “really a sporting choice.” Hamraoui suggested in a radio interview with France Inter soon after the announcement that it was not: She called her omission “an injustice.”The story, though, is not over. That is why, Souid said, filmmakers were interested in telling Hamraoui’s side of it. “It’s not easy to understand what happened to her,” she said.Diallo, adrift and impatient, might say the same.For now, both players wait for clarity on who bears the ultimate responsibility for what happened on that dark night in the narrow street, for the end of their association with the case, and with Tonya Harding. Until then, Hamraoui will continue to pursue her soccer career. And Diallo will continue to defend her name.“I’m not hiding,” Diallo said before departing for another evening in her silent apartment, alone with her thoughts, and her furies.Tom Nouvian contributed reporting in Paris. More

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      French Women’s Player Charged in Attack on Teammate

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      Aminata Diallo was detained and then released last year after her Paris St.-Germain teammate was beaten by masked men. On Friday, the police charged her with aggravated assault.A former Paris St.-Germain women’s soccer player was charged with aggravated assault on Friday as part of the investigation into a violent attack on one of her teammates last year by masked men wielding a metal bar.The player, Aminata Diallo, was taken into custody early Friday morning. Later in the day, she was charged in what the prosecutor in the case said was a planned and premeditated attack on her P.S.G. teammate at the time Kheira Hamraoui. Diallo, according to the prosecutor’s statement, has been temporarily placed in prison pending further talks with the investigating judge. The prosecutor has called for her to face pretrial detention, meaning she would remain in prison while she awaits further developments in the case.The attack on Hamraoui became headline news in France and beyond last year because of the nature of the assault and the subsequent detention of Diallo. The cinematic story line — masked men wielding a metal bar on a dark street, reports of marital infidelity and unsubstantiated reports that a battle for playing time had factored in the attack — has led filmmakers to approach both women about collaborating on projects.But the incident also convulsed both the P.S.G. team and the French national team, on which both women had played, and it even led to the breakup of the marriage of a celebrated former French men’s player, Eric Abidal. Abidal’s wife, Hayet Abidal, filed for divorce last year, claiming that her husband had admitted to an extramarital affair with Hamraoui.Prosecutors said three men had acknowledged being at the scene and that a fourth had admitted striking Hamraoui. All four men, the prosecutor’s statement said, implicated Diallo as organizing the attack on her orders, and they contended the plot was an effort to take Hamraoui’s place on the P.S.G. team.Those details bear striking similarities to the notorious attack perpetrated on the Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in 1994. Kerrigan was attacked at that year’s United States championships in a plot orchestrated by the ex-husband of a rival skater, Tonya Harding. Kerrigan was assaulted after a practice session by a man who hit her repeatedly in the legs with a police baton.Diallo has maintained her innocence from the start, and she was released without charges after 36 hours in her first detention last year. Neither she nor her lawyer made any public comments on Friday.The attack on Hamraoui followed a team dinner last November at an upscale restaurant in a park on the outskirts of Paris. Diallo had offered Hamraoui a ride home but, after dropping off a third teammate at her home, their journey was interrupted when two men emerged in front of the club-issued car that Diallo was driving, opened the passenger door and dragged Hamraoui out. One of the men then began beating Hamraoui with a metal bar, focusing on her legs and leaving her cut and bruised. Diallo told the police that she was pinned to the steering wheel by another man while the attack took place.A week after the attack, Diallo was arrested, and she was kept in police custody for 36 hours. The Versailles prosecutor’s office confirmed at the time that an acquaintance of Diallo’s, a man in Lyon who had been in jail on unrelated charges, had been questioned and then released.Kheira Hamraoui in a game with France in February. She has not played for P.S.G. this season.Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe incident has wrecked the careers of both women. Diallo, 27, retired from professional soccer this summer after her contract with P.S.G. expired. Hamraoui, 32, remains under contract at P.S.G., but she is in a dispute with the club about her treatment after having not been selected to play by the team’s current management.Both players were left off the France squad that competed in this summer’s European women’s championship in England.Diallo’s lawyer, Mourad Battikh, did not reply to a request for comment on Friday. Earlier this week, however, after several men were arrested in connection with the attack, Battikh had said that there was no link between them and Diallo. “Aminata is innocent and has claimed her innocence since the beginning,” he said. More

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      What Happened in the P.S.G. Attack?

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      The assault of a top women’s player made headlines, with masked men, a metal bar and the arrest of a teammate. But weeks later, new details suggest the original story might have been wrong.VERSAILLES, France — It was dark by the time Aminata Diallo stepped through the concrete arch of the Hôtel de Police and onto the sidewalk outside. It had been about 36 hours since officers had banged on her apartment door, rousing her from sleep and taking her into custody.Now released and scrolling through the hundreds of messages she had missed, Diallo, a midfielder for the French soccer team Paris St.-Germain, was stunned by what she saw. Little known only days earlier beyond the cloistered world of French women’s soccer, her name was suddenly headline news around the world.Diallo, the news reports said, was the player who had been driving the car last month when one of her teammates was pulled from the passenger seat by a masked man and assaulted. Diallo, the reports said, was the one who had been unharmed as her friend and teammate Kheira Hamraoui was beaten with an iron bar. And Diallo was the player now being questioned not as a witness but as a possible suspect in what the police had suggested was an orchestrated attack.The story, with its hints of sporting jealousy, its echoes of Tonya Harding and its links to Paris St.-Germain, the reigning French champion and one of the richest soccer clubs in the world, quickly spread far and wide.But as details emerge — about marital infidelity; about accusations implicating other members of the team; about reports of menacing phone calls to players disparaging the victim before she was attacked — that initial story has been turned on its head.And now no one is sure what, or whom, to believe.A Case in LimboAminata Diallo, confident the police were mistaken in detaining her, declined a lawyer during questioning.Loic Baratoux/Abaca/Sipa USA, via AP ImagesMore than three weeks have passed since Diallo, 26, walked out of the police station in Versailles, released after two days of interviews and a night in a tiny, foul-smelling cell. The investigation continues, but the police appear to be no closer to figuring out what, or who, was behind the attack on Nov. 4 on a dark street in the Paris suburb of Chatou.A few things are undisputed. Hamraoui, 31, was the victim of a serious crime. Diallo was questioned and released. None of the attackers have been identified. No weapon has been recovered. And no one has been charged with a crime.But in reporting about the tumultuous weeks since the attack, The New York Times also learned that Hamraoui has at times suggested other people with links to the club, including at least two other teammates, may have been involved in her assault; that while P.S.G. kept Diallo and Hamraoui training apart from the team, and from each other, for weeks, a scheduling mistake led to one interaction in which sharp words were exchanged; and that while the police released Diallo without filing charges, they have declined to clear her of suspicion and have retained her two cellphones and laptop.The collateral damage of the incident, meanwhile, continues to grow. Diallo and Hamraoui had their names smeared and their careers disrupted. The locker room harmony at P.S.G. has been shattered, hobbling the trophy ambitions of one of Europe’s best teams. And the marriage of a French soccer hero drawn into the case has collapsed; his wife released a statement saying she would seek a divorce after, her lawyer claimed, he had admitted to her that he had been having an extramarital affair with Hamraoui.Kheira Hamraoui in August. She and Diallo vacationed together and were teammates with Paris St.-Germain and France’s national team.Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesThe Times collected information on the attack, and its aftermath, by interviewing nearly a dozen people with direct knowledge of the principals, the assault and the days that followed, including friends, relatives and associates of the players; the players’ lawyers; P.S.G. insiders; and the police.Many of those interviewed sought to rebut the story’s existing narrative of jealousy and betrayal, and nearly all agreed to speak only if they were not quoted by name, given the sensitivity of the case.Yet the path forward appears as complicated as the present: Hamraoui met with the police again last week, and Diallo most likely faces further questioning, too. The players rejoined their teammates in training on Tuesday, but the case is now in the hands of an investigating magistrate, a process that could continue for at least 18 months. During that time, the authorities, and the players, will continue to try to untangle the single minute on a dark street that changed both of their lives.A Team DinnerLe Chalet des Iles in the Bois de Boulogne, on the outskirts of Paris, where Hamraoui, Diallo and their P.S.G. teammates gathered for a dinner on the night of the attack. James Hill for The New York TimesTo those present there was nothing special about the dinner at an upscale restaurant set on an island in one of Paris’s biggest parks in the first week of November.The players had been brought together by their club to break bread, an effort to maintain the cohesion that helped them start the season undefeated, and to steel them for the challenges ahead.Diallo agreed to pick up Hamraoui and another player, Sakina Karchaoui, after the club asked the players to car pool because of limited parking at the restaurant. The three players, who lived near one another in the northwest suburbs of Paris, had grown close since joining the club over the summer: Hamraoui from Barcelona, Karchaoui from Lyon and Diallo from a brief loan at Atlético Madrid. But Diallo and Hamraoui, teammates from a previous stint at P.S.G. and camps with France’s national team, were particularly friendly; they had even vacationed together.After dinner, around 10:30 p.m., the three women returned to Diallo’s car, a club-issued Toyota Corolla, for the drive home. Hamraoui jumped into the front passenger seat, Diallo plugged Karchaoui’s address into a navigation app, and they set off.After dropping off Karchaoui, and with parked cars narrowing the roadway, Diallo was still pulling away tentatively when two men, their faces covered by masks, emerged from behind a van. They thumped on the car’s hood, demanding that it stop, and screamed to Diallo and Hamraoui to “open the door.”The assailants moved quickly. One opened the driver’s door and pinned Diallo against the steering wheel. The other yanked Hamraoui from the passenger seat.“The man on my side grabbed me and pulled me from the vehicle,” Hamraoui later told the police, according to details of her statements published by the French news media. “Before he did that, he pulled a rectangular iron bar that he had hidden in his pants or underneath his sweater. He hit me from the very first moments of the attack to force me out.”Hamraoui’s injuries included cuts and deep bruising around her knees.Courtesy Harir AvocatsShe told the police her assailant paid particular attention to her legs.Hamraoui said she fell into the road. “My attacker hit me with an iron bar several times,” she said. “I saw that he was targeting my legs, and I tried to protect myself with my hands.”Hamraoui said she recalled hearing one of the men yell something about a married man. Diallo would later tell the police she heard a full sentence: “So like that, you touch married men?” Diallo also told the police that she had heard sexually charged insults above the agonizing screams of Hamraoui as the attacker’s blows rained down.The attack lasted less than a minute before the assailants fled. Hamraoui, blood streaming from a wound on her hand, slumped back into the car. She and Diallo immediately called Karchaoui, whose home was less than 100 meters behind them, to tell her what had happened and to ask her to join them at the car. Then they set off for a nearby emergency room.The AftermathThe emergency entrance of the hospital in Poissy, where Hamraoui was treated for her injuries hours after she was assaulted.James Hill for The New York TimesAs Diallo drove, the players alerted their team. P.S.G.’s deputy head of security, Frédéric Doué arrived at the hospital with Bernard Mendy, an assistant coach on the women’s team. A friend of Hamraoui’s soon appeared there as well.With Hamraoui’s wounds treated but the assailants unidentified, the club officials told the women that under no circumstances were they to return to their homes. Instead, the team arranged for them to spend the night at a Holiday Inn close to the team’s training base about 10 miles west of central Paris.The hotel was familiar to all three women; they had spent weeks there after their moves to P.S.G. last summer. Karchaoui and Hamraoui shared a room. Diallo took one nearby. Hamraoui’s friend also spent the night.In the hotel, the women discussed who might have been behind the attack. Hamraoui was adamant from the start that someone at the club was involved, according to people familiar with the conversations. The players also discussed a strange episode from a couple of weeks earlier, when a number of their teammates had received anonymous calls from a man speaking ill of Hamraoui. But as they continued to talk through the night, Hamraoui also alighted on other potential suspects, at one point raising the name of the husband of a fourth P.S.G. teammate, who acts as the agent for yet another French star on the team.The next morning, after a few hours of fitful, fretful sleep, the women went through the events again. As they talked, Hamraoui received a phone call. It was Eric Abidal, a former French national team player whom she had come to know at Barcelona, where she played for three seasons when he served as the club’s technical director.Eric Abidal, a two-time winner of the Champions League with Barcelona who played in two World Cups for France, remains a popular figure in his home country.Albert Gea/ReutersHamraoui asked Abidal if his wife might want to hurt her, before telling him that she had been assaulted. With the phone set to loudspeaker, the people in the room could hear his response: He sounded stunned. A few more words were exchanged and the call ended.Karchaoui and Diallo soon left together to have breakfast at the club’s training facility in Bougival, where they practiced before meeting with members of the club’s management to relay the details of the attack. (Hamraoui did not accompany them; she was taken for more treatment of her injuries.) Later, the players and several teammates, those who received the anonymous calls, went to the police station to provide more statements.The club, uneasy about an attack on one of its players, assigned members of its security staff to watch over the homes of Diallo, Hamraoui and Karchaoui in the days that followed, but news of the assault stayed within the club.Inside the team, though, tensions were mounting. The French national team striker Kadidiatou Diani, angry that Hamraoui had mentioned her husband as a possible suspect — he has not been implicated or even questioned by the police — confronted her teammate as Hamraoui worked out on a bicycle.On Nov. 9, less than a week after the attack, Diallo started in Hamraoui’s place in a Champions League game against Real Madrid. Karchaoui played, too. Nothing seemed amiss, beyond Hamraoui’s absence, which was explained away by the club as being for “personal reasons.” P.S.G. collected another victory. It had still not allowed a goal all season.That night, as she does after most games, Diallo stayed up late, the adrenaline of having played keeping her up until about 3 a.m. She had barely slept, according to people close to her, when a few hours later she was awakened by banging at her front door. Opening it, she was confronted by four police officers.36 HoursThe central police station in Versailles, where Diallo was detained for about 36 hours.James Hill for The New York TimesPolitely but firmly, an officer told Diallo that she was to accompany them to the police station. Other officers searched her home and collected items, including at least two cellphones and a laptop computer. At the police station, Diallo declined an offer to have a lawyer present during questioning.From the moment the police started asking her questions, Diallo realized Hamraoui had named her as a suspect. The police suggested Diallo had taken a different route home after dinner than the one she had first suggested. They questioned her about why she had been driving so slowly after she pulled away from Karchaoui’s home. And then they presented her with the theory, later published by a French newspaper while she was still in custody, that the assault might have been rooted in her desire to acquire Hamraoui’s midfield spot in the first team.It was that claim that vaulted the story into the global news cycle, and prompted the comparisons with the infamous 1994 assault on the figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.The police concentrated on the same series of questions during repeated rounds of questioning with Diallo, mainly focusing on the car journey and her actions during the assault. But they also asked her about her connection to a man imprisoned in Lyon for unrelated crimes, including extortion. The man, known as Ja Ja, was familiar to several female soccer players, Diallo told the police, including Hamraoui. He, too, was being questioned about the attack, the police later confirmed.And after at first keeping it to herself, Diallo revealed to her questioners that she had heard one of the assailants accuse Hamraoui of sleeping with a married man. (By the end of her fifth interview, the police had learned that the chip in Hamraoui’s cellphone was registered in Abidal’s name; Hamraoui had told them only that it was linked to an ex-boyfriend.)By then, Diallo told friends, she had noticed a softening in the police’s questioning. Still, they said she would have to spend the night in her cell because the next day she would be required to participate in a “confrontation” with Hamraoui — a feature in French criminal investigations in which suspects and witnesses are presented with versions of events at the same time and allowed to respond.To make her stay more comfortable, the police allowed Diallo, a Muslim, to order her own dinner through a food delivery app. She chose a halal chicken sandwich.A Murky FutureThe facility in Bougival where the P.S.G. women’s team trains. Recently, Hamraoui has arrived for her workouts accompanied by a bodyguard.James Hill for The New York TimesIt was late in the afternoon the next day when Diallo finally came face to face with Hamraoui. She later told friends and relatives that she found it “bizarre” to hear the accusation being leveled at her: that Hamraoui had heard from other teammates that Diallo was behind the attack. Diallo denied the charge. The meeting lasted about an hour. When it ended, Diallo was allowed to leave.At the entrance to the police station, she was picked up by a friend. As she was driven home, the scale of her unwanted celebrity quickly became clear in the hundreds of text messages she had received from friends and family and others.That evening she hired a lawyer, Mourad Battikh, to represent her. The next day, P.S.G.’s general manager, Ulrich Ramé, accompanied by a doctor, met with Diallo at her home. They urged her to spend time with her family, to recover. Diallo insisted she was ready to return to training, that all she wanted to do was play again. The team quickly made it clear that would not be possible initially.With a break in P.S.G.’s schedule, Diallo eventually made a trip to Grenoble to visit her family, parts of which had learned of the attack, and her arrest, through news media reports.A cousin, Abou Dieng, told The Times that all Diallo wanted to do was return to the field for P.S.G., the team she had always dreamed of representing. “We don’t even speak about Hamraoui,” he said. “We speak just about football and a return to the training ground.”After returning to Paris, Diallo trained alone. So did Hamraoui, with the club scheduling their workouts at different times and taking pains to ensure they were never at the training facility at the same time (not always successfully). Their purgatory began to end on Monday, when they trained together for the first time since the attack after France’s players’ union intervened. They rejoined their teammates on Tuesday, but a club official said both would be held back from a midweek trip to Ukraine for a Champions League game.Neither Diallo nor Hamraoui has said anything publicly about the attack or its aftermath. But a few days after Diallo’s release from detention, Battikh appeared on French television and described his client’s arrest as “defamatory, scandalous and incoherent.” A few hours later, Hamraoui’s lawyer, Said Harir, took to the airwaves brandishing images that showed in graphic detail the injuries his client had sustained.P.S.G., which declined to comment for this article, has said little amid twisting plotlines in the case, which now appear to include the demise of Abidal’s marriage. A lawyer representing his wife, Hayet, said she had filed for divorce, and released a statement on Nov. 18 in which Hayet Abidal claimed her husband had admitted to an extramarital affair with Hamraoui. Eric Abidal later took to Instagram to plead with his wife for forgiveness.Hayet Abidal has denied any involvement in the attack. But Maryvonne Caillebotte, the prosecutor first responsible for the case, told Le Monde last month that Abidal “would be heard soon” and did not exclude the possibility that his wife would be questioned, too.Battikh, Diallo’s lawyer, remains furious at how Diallo was treated by the police. “When it’s Aminata they show their muscles and they place her in detention,” Battikh said. “When it’s Eric Abidal — someone strong, famous, popular — they take their time, go slowly, ensure they don’t make a mistake.”Mourad Battikh, the lawyer of Aminata Diallo, in his office in Paris.James Hill for The New York TimesThe lawyer Said Harir was hired to represent Kheira Hamraoui.James Hill for The New York TimesThe P.S.G. women’s team remains convulsed by the crisis. Its first game after the news broke was a 6-1 thrashing by its main title rival, Lyon, that damaged its hopes of retaining the French championship. Since then, a few of Hamraoui’s teammates have asked to move their lockers away from hers in the dressing room. Others have told club management that they will find it hard to play with her again. Several of the club’s best players just want to move on.All the while, the assailants remain at large, and no one can say where the case may lead. A premeditated attack like the one inflicted on Hamraoui carries a five-year prison sentence, according to a police spokeswoman in Versailles.Diallo wants justice, her lawyer said. She is convinced of her innocence and determined to continue her career at P.S.G., where she has only six months left on her contract. “Her reputation was damaged by all the newspapers around the world,” said Battikh, her lawyer.Hamraoui wants justice, too, and continues to believe the truth will be found inside her soccer club. She said as much in her most recent interview with the police on Nov. 29; the investigators, according to a person familiar with her appearance, asked her again about Diallo’s actions on the drive home, and the route she took.In his office in an upscale district close to the Champs-Élysées, Hamraoui’s lawyer, Harir, said the focus must remain on finding out who was behind the attack. “We expect they will charge the guilty people quickly,” he said.“What she wants today,” he added of Hamraoui, “is that her private life is respected, that her status as a victim is respected.”Romain Molina More

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      Qui a commandité l'agression d'une footballeuse du PSG?

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      L’agression de la footballeuse du PSG a choqué les esprits: attaquants masqués, barre métallique, sa coéquipière Aminata Diallo arrêtée. Ces dernières semaines, de nouveaux éléments sont venus bouleverser la première version de l’histoire.VERSAILLES — La nuit est déjà tombée quand Aminata Diallo franchit le fronton de béton de l’Hôtel de Police pour quitter le bâtiment. 36 heures plus tôt, des agents de police ont frappé à la porte de son appartement, l’ont tirée de son sommeil, et l’ont emmenée en garde à vue.Enfin libérée, Aminata Diallo, milieu de terrain de l’équipe féminine du PSG, fait défiler les centaines de messages qu’elle a reçus. Elle tombe des nues. Inconnue quelques jours plus tôt en dehors du petit monde du football féminin français, son nom fait la Une des journaux aux quatre coins de la planète.Selon la presse, Aminata Diallo est celle qui, un mois plus tôt, conduisait la voiture depuis laquelle une de ses coéquipières avait été tirée du siège passager et agressée par un homme masqué. Toujours selon la presse, elle-même s’en était sortie indemne, alors que sa coéquipière et amie Kheira Hamraoui avait été frappée à coups de barre métallique. Aminata Diallo est donc celle qu’on a interrogée, non pas comme témoin, mais comme suspecte de ce qui, selon la police, pouvait être un coup monté.Avec ses relents de jalousie sportive, sa ressemblance avec l’affaire Tonya Harding et ses liens avec le PSG (champion de France en titre et l’un des clubs de foot les plus riches au monde), l’affaire a rapidement fait le tour de la planète.Mais plus on en apprend — sur une histoire d’infidélité conjugale, sur des accusations à l’encontre d’autres joueuses de l’équipe, et sur des coups de fil à d’autres joueuses médisant sur la victime avant l’agression — plus la première version de l’histoire est remise en cause.Aujourd’hui, plus personne ne sait qui croire. Ni quoi.Un dossier en suspensAminata Diallo, convaincue que sa garde à vue était une erreur de la police, a refusé de se faire assister d’un avocat lors de ses interrogatoires.Loic Baratoux/Abaca/Sipa USA, via AP ImagesPlus de trois semaines se sont écoulées depuis qu’Aminata Diallo, 26 ans, quittait le commissariat de Versailles après deux jours d’interrogatoires et une nuit passée dans une cellule minuscule et nauséabonde. L’enquête se poursuit, mais la police semble loin de comprendre qui, ou quoi, est derrière cette agression qui a eu lieu le 4 novembre. dans une rue sombre de Chatou, en banlieue parisienne.Certains faits sont indiscutables. Kheira Hamraoui, 31 ans, a été victime d’un grave délit. Aminata Diallo a été interrogée puis relâchée. Aucun des agresseurs n’a été identifié. Aucune arme n’a été retrouvée. Et personne n’a été accusé du crime.Mais en enquêtant sur les semaines tumultueuses qui ont suivi l’agression, le New York Times a aussi découvert que Kheira Hamraoui a plusieurs fois laissé entendre que d’autres personnes en lien avec le club, (dont au moins deux co-équipières) seraient impliquées dans l’affaire; qu’alors que le PSG faisait s’entraîner Aminata Diallo et Kheira Hamraoui chacune de son côté, et séparément de leur équipe, depuis des semaines, une erreur de calendrier les a amenées à se croiser et à échanger des noms d’oiseau; enfin, il a découvert que la police a relâché Aminata Diallo sans déposer de plainte, mais a refusé de l’innocenter et de lui rendre ses deux téléphones et son ordinateur portable.En attendant, les dommages collatéraux s’accumulent. Diallo et Hamraoui voient leurs noms salis et leur carrières bouleversées. La cohésion dans les vestiaires du PSG en souffre, compromettant les ambitions de victoire d’une des meilleures équipes d’Europe. Et le mariage d’une légende du football français impliqué dans l’affaire en a pris un coup : sa femme a annoncé dans un communiqué qu’elle demandait le divorce après qu’il lui a avoué avoir eu une liaison avec Kheira Hamraoui, selon son avocat.Kheira Hamraoui en août dernier. Elle et Diallo ont passée des vacances ensemble et étaient coéquipières au sein du club du Paris Saint-Germain et de l’équipe nationale.  Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesLe New York Times a recueilli des informations sur l’agression et ses suite en interviewant une douzaine de personnes en contact direct avec les principaux protagonistes et ayant connaissance de l’agression et des évènements des jours qui l’ont suivie, dont des amis, des membres de leurs familles et des associés des joueuses, leurs avocats, des membres du PSG et de la police.Parmi les personnes interviewées, beaucoup tendent à réfuter les soupçons de jalousie et de trahison. La plupart n’ont accepté de parler qu’à condition que leur nom se soit pas cité, jugeant l’affaire trop sensible.Telle qu’elle se présente aujourd’hui, la situation est toujours aussi compliquée : Kheira Hamraoui a revu la police la semaine dernière, et il y a de fortes chances qu’Aminata Diallo soit elle aussi interrogée à nouveau. Les joueuses doivent reprendre l’entraînement avec leurs coéquipières mardi, mais l’affaire est désormais entre les mains d’un juge d’instruction pour une procédure qui pourrait durer au moins 18 mois. Pendant ce temps-là, les autorités et les joueuses continueront d’essayer d’élucider les dessous de cette petite minute qui, dans une rue peu éclairée, a fait basculer leurs vies.Un dîner d’équipeC’est au Chalet des Iles dans le Bois de Boulogne, aux abords de Paris, qu’Hamraoui, Diallo et leurs coéquipières du PSG ont dîné le soir de l’agression.James Hill pour The New York TimesPour les convives, ce dîner dans un restaurant chic situé sur une île dans un des plus grands parcs de Paris n’avait pourtant rien de particulier.C’était au début du mois de novembre, le club avait réuni les joueuses autour d’un bon repas pour entretenir cette cohésion qui leur avait permis de débuter la saison sans essuyer la moindre défaite, et pour les préparer aux prochaines épreuves.Aminata Diallo avait accepté de prendre Kheira Hamraoui et une autre joueuse, Sakina Karchaoui, dans sa voiture. Le restaurant ayant peu de places de parking, le club leur avait demandé de faire du co-voiturage. Les trois joueuses, qui habitent non loin les unes des autres dans une banlieue nord-ouest de Paris, s’étaient rapprochées depuis qu’elles avaient rejoint le PSG l’été précédent : Kheira Hamraoui venait de Barcelone, Sakina Karchaoui de Lyon, et Aminata Diallo avait été temporairement “prêtée” à l’Atletico de Madrid. Diallo et Hamraoui, déjà coéquipières à l’occasion d’un précédent passage au PSG et de stages avec l’équipe nationale étaient particulièrement proches. Elles avaient même passé des vacances ensemble.Après le dîner, vers 22h30, les trois jeunes femmes reprennent la voiture de Diallo, une Toyota Corolla fournie par le club. Hamraoui s’installe sur le siège passager, Diallo entre l’adresse de Karchaoui dans son GPS et elles prennent la route.Après avoir déposé Karchaoui dans une rue rendue étroite par le grand nombre de voitures garées tout au long, Diallo redémarre doucement lorsque deux hommes masqués surgissent de derrière une camionnette. Ils tapent sur le capot de la voiture pour la faire stopper et hurlent à l’attention de Diallo et d’Hamraoui :“Ouvre la porte!”Les agresseurs agissent très vite. Le premier ouvre la portière côté conducteur et plaque Aminata Diallo contre le volant. Le second arrache Kheira Hamraoui du siège passager.“Celui qui était de mon côté s’est saisi de moi et m’a extirpée du véhicule,” a déclaré Kheira Hamraoui à la police (d’après les extraits de ses déclarations publiés par la presse française). “Avant, il s’est emparé d’une barre de fer rectangulaire qu’il avait cachée dans son pantalon ou sous son pull. Il m’a donné un coup dès les premiers instants de l’agression pour m’obliger à sortir de l’habitacle.”Les blessures de Hamraoui étaient des coupures et d’importants hématomes au niveau des genous.Courtesy Harir AvocatsElle a déclaré à la police que l’agresseur visait essentiellement ses jambes.Kheira Hamraoui dit qu’elle est tombée sur la chaussée : “J’ai vu qu’il visait essentiellement mes jambes, et moi, j’essayais de me protéger avec mes mains.”Elle se souvient aussi avoir entendu un des inconnus crier quelque chose à propos d’un homme marié. Plus tard, Aminata Diallo dira à la police avoir entendu la phrase: “Alors comme ça, on couche avec des hommes mariés ?” Elle dira aussi avoir entendu des insultes à connotation sexuelle au travers des hurlements de Kheira Hamraoui , sur laquelle pleuvaient les coups.L’agression dure moins d’une minute avant que les agresseurs ne prennent la fuite. Hamraoui rentre et s’affalle dans la voiture, une main en sang. Les deux femmes appellent immédiatement Sakina Karchaoui, dont le domicile est à moins de 100 mètres, pour lui raconter ce qui s’est passé et lui demander de les rejoindre. Elles filent ensuite aux urgences les plus proches.Les suitesLes urgences de l’hôpital de Poissy, où Hamaraoui  s’est rendue pour faire soigner ses blessures quelques heures après l’agression.James Hill pour The New York TimesPendant le trajet, Diallo au volant, les joueuses préviennent le club de ce qui vient de se passer. Le directeur-adjoint de la sécurité du PSG, Frédéric Doué, arrive aux urgences avec Bernard Mendy, entraîneur adjoint de l’équipe féminine. Peu après, une amie de Kheira Hamraoui les rejoint aussi.Une fois les blessures de Hamraoui soignées, les agresseurs n’ayant pas été identifiés, les responsables du club interdisent aux joueuses de rentrer chez elles. L’équipe s’est arrangée pour qu’elles passent la nuit dans un Holiday Inn proche de leur terrain d’entraînement, à une quinzaine de kilomètres à l’ouest de Paris.Les trois jeunes femmes connaissent cet hôtel car elle ont y logé quelques semaines après leur transfert au PSG l’été précédent. Sakina Karchaoui et Kheira Hamraoui prennent une chambre à deux. Aminata Diallo s’installe dans une chambre voisine. L’amie de Kheira Hamraoui , elle aussi, passe la nuit à l’hôtel.Sur place, les jeunes femmes essaient de comprendre qui peut bien être à l’origine de l’agression. D’après plusieurs personnes au courant de leur conversation, Kheira Hamraoui est catégorique dès le départ : un membre du club est forcément impliqué. Les joueuses évoquent aussi un épisode étrange qui a eu lieu quelques semaines plus tôt : plusieurs de leurs coéquipières avaient reçu des appels anonymes d’un homme qui disait du mal de Hamraoui. Mais plus tard cette nuit-là, Kheira Hamraoui évoque aussi d’autres suspects, citant notamment le mari d’une quatrième joueuse du PSG, qui se trouve être aussi l’agent d’une autre star française de l’équipe.Le lendemain matin, après une nuit brève et agitée, les jeunes femmes reprennent leurs discussions. Pendant qu’elles parlent, le téléphone de Kheira Hamraoui sonne. C’est Éric Abidal, un ancien joueur de l’équipe nationale française qu’elle a connu au FC Barcelone, le club où elle a joué pednant trois saisons et dont il était alors le directeur technique.Eric Abidal, deux fois vainqueur de la Champions League à Barcelone et deux fois sélectionné dans l’équipe nationale pour la Coupe du Monde, demeure une populaire dans son pays natal. Albert Gea/ReutersKheira Hamraoui demande à Éric Abidal si sa femme pourrait vouloir lui faire du mal, puis lui annonce qu’elle s’est fait agresser. Le téléphone étant sur haut-parleur, tous ceux dans la pièce entendent sa reaction: il semble abasourdi. Ils échangent encore quelques mots, puis l’appel prend fin.Peu après, Sakira Karchaoui et Aminata Diallo partent petit-déjeuner au camp du club, à Bougival. Elles s’entraînent puis rencontrent des membres de la direction pour leur raconter les détails de l’agression. (Kheira Hamraoui ne les accompagnait pas ; elle était retournée faire soigner ses blessures). Plus tard, les joueuses, ainsi que les coéquipières qui avaient reçu les appels anonymes, sont allées faire de nouvelles déclarations à la police.Inquiet de voir qu’on s’en était pris à une de ses joueuses, le club désigne des agents de sécurité pour surveiller les domiciles des trois joueuses pendant quelques jours, mais ne divulgue pas la nouvelle de l’incident.Au sein de l’équipe, pourtant, la tension monte. L’attaquante de l’équipe nationale Kadidiatou Diani, qui en veut à Kheira Hamraoui d’avoir cité son mari parmi les éventuels suspects — il n’a pas été inquiété, ni même interrogé par la police — la prend à partie alors qu’elle s’entraîne sur un vélo en salle.Le 9 novembre, moins d’une semaine après l’agression, Aminata Diallo débutait le match de Ligue des Champions contre le Real Madrid à la place de Kheira Hamraoui. Sakira Karchaoui était aussi de la partie. Tout semblait normal, excepté l’absence de Kheira Hamraoui que le club justifia pour “raisons personnelles”. Encore une victoire pour le PSG. Et toujours aucun but encaissé depuis le début de la saison.Ce soir-là, comme souvent après les matchs, Aminata Diallo se couche tard. L’adrénaline la tient éveillée jusqu’à 3 heures du matin. Elle vient de fermer l’œil, selon ses proches, quand des coups frappés à sa porte d’entrée la tirent de son sommeil. Elle ouvre et se retrouve face à quatre officiers de police.36 heuresL’hôtel de police de Versailles, où Diallo est restée environ 36 heures en garde à vue.James Hill pour The New York TimesPoliment mais fermement, l’un d’eux demande à Aminata Diallo de les suivre au commissariat. Ses collègues fouillent le domicile et emportent plusieurs objets, dont au moins deux téléphones et un ordinateur portable. Arrivée au commissariat, Diallo refuse une offre d’être assistée par un avocat pendant son interrogatoire.Dès le début de l’interrogatoire, Aminata Diallo comprend que Kheira Hamraoui l’a désignée comme suspecte. Les policiers sous-entendaient qu’au retour du dîner, elle avait pris une autre route que celle qu’elle avait indiquée au départ. Ils lui demandaient pourquoi elle conduisait si lentement après avoir déposé Sakira Karchaoui. Ils lui ont ensuite soumis l’hypothèse suivante, publiée très vite dans un journal français alors que Diallo est encore en garde à vue : l’agression aurait été motivée par son désir d’être titularisée au poste de milieu de terrain, occupé par Hamraoui, dans l’équipe première.C’est cette hypothèse qui a catapulté l’histoire de l’agression dans les médias internationaux et suscité des comparaisons avec la tristement célèbre agression de la patineuse Nancy Kerrigan en 1994.La police procède à plusieurs interrogations d’Aminata Diallo, revenant à chaque reprise sur une même série de questions sur le trajet en voiture et sur ce qu’elle-même faisait pendant l’agression. Les policiers l’interroge aussi sur ses liens avec un homme emprisonné à Lyon pour des délits (notamment des extorsions) sans rapport avec l’agression. Connu sous le nom de Ja Ja, cet homme compte plusieurs footballeuses parmi ses connaissances, explique Diallo à la police, dont Kheira Hamraoui. La police a confirmé par la suite que lui aussi avait été interrogé au sujet de l’agression.Après l’avoir gardé pour elle, Aminata Diallo finit par révéler à ses interrogateurs qu’elle avait entendu un des agresseurs accuser Kheira Hamraoui de coucher avec un homme marié. (Au bout du cinquième interrogatoire de Diallo, la police a appris que la carte SIM du téléphone portable de Kheira Hamraoui est enregistrée au nom d’Eric Abidal; jusque là, cette dernière leur avait simplement dit que cette carte était liée à un ancien petit ami.)Aminata Diallo a raconté à des amis qu’à partir de ce moment-là, l’interrogatoire s’est adouci. Les officiers lui disent tout de même qu’elle devra passer la nuit au poste afin, dès le lendemain, qu’elle puisse prendre part à une “confrontation” avec Kheira Hamraoui – la confrontation, propre aux enquêtes françaises, consiste à réunir les suspects et les témoins pour que chacun expose sa version des faits.En guise de réconfort, la police autorise Aminata Diallo, qui est musulmane, à commander son dîner via une application de livraison. Elle choisit un sandwich au poulet halal.Un avenir incertainÀ Bougival, le centre où s’entraîne l’équipe féminine du PSG. Depuis peu, Hamraoui se rend aux entraînements accompagnée d’un garde du corps. James Hill pour The New York TimesLe lendemain, en fin d’après-midi, Aminata Diallo s’est donc retrouvée donc face à Kheira Hamraoui. Plus tard elle a dit à ses proches qu’elle avait trouvé “bizarre” de découvrir ce dont on l’accusait, à savoir que Kheira Hamraoui aurait entendu dire par des coéquipières que Diallo était derrière l’agression. Celle-ci a nié l’accusation. La confrontation a duré environ une heure. À la fin, Diallo a été autorisée à partir.Une amie d’Aminata Diallo est venue la chercher à la sortie de l’hôtel de police. Pendant le trajet, alors qu’on la reconduisait chez elle, Diallo a très vite réalisé l’ampleur qu’avait pris l’affaire — et sa notoriété bien malgré elle — à la lecture des centaines de SMS d’amis, de sa famille et d’autres.Le soir même, elle engageait un avocat, Mourad Battikh, pour la représenter. Le lendemain, le manager du PSG, Ulrich Ramé, lui a rendu visite chez elle accompagné d’un médecin. Ils l’ont encouragée à passer du temps avec ses proches pour se remettre. Elle insistait au contraire pour reprendre l’entraînement. Tout ce qu’elle désirait, c’était de retourner sur le terrain. Le club lui a fait comprendre que ce n’était pas possible, du moins dans un premier temps.Comme il y avait une pause dans le programme du PSG, Diallo en a profité pour aller à Grenoble voir sa famille, dont certains avaient appris l’agression et son arrestation dans les médias.Abou Dieng, un cousin, a confirmé au New York Times qu’elle espérait recommencer à jouer pour le PSG, l’équipe qu’elle a toujours rêvé de représenter : “On ne parle même pas de Kheira Hamraoui. On ne parle que de foot et de son retour aux entraînements.”De retour à Paris, Aminata Diallo a repris seule les entraînements. De même pour Kheira Hamraoui, le club s’appliquant à programmer leurs séances d’entraînement à des heures différentes et veillant à ce qu’elles ne se retrouvent jamais sur le terrain au même moment (sans toujours y parvenir). Leur purgatoire a commencé à prendre fin lundi, quand elles se sont entraînées ensemble pour la première fois depuis l’agression, après l’intervention du syndicat des joueurs français. Mardi, elles ont rejoint leurs coéquipières, mais un responsable du club leur a annoncé qu’elles ne les accompagneraient pas en Ukraine en milieu de semaine pour un match de Ligue des Champions.Ni l’une ni l’autre ne s’est exprimée publiquement sur l’agression, ni sur ses suites. Mais quelques jours après la libération d’Aminata Diallo, son avocat Mourad Battikh a qualifié à la télévision son arrestation d’ “infamante, scandaleuse et incohérente”. Quelques heures plus tard, c’est l’avocat de Kheira Hamraoui, Saïd Harir, qui réagissait à l’antenne en montrant des photos des blessures infligées à sa cliente.Le PSG, qui a refusé de répondre à nos questions, reste discret sur les rebondissements d’une affaire qui semble désormais également signer la fin du mariage d’Éric Abidal. L’avocat de son épouse Hayet a annoncé que sa cliente demande le divorce. Le 18 novembre, il a publié un communiqué dans lequel Hayet Abidal affirme que son mari reconnaît avoir eu une liaison avec Kheira Hamraoui. Plus tard sur Instagram, Eric Abidal a demandé à sa femme de lui pardonner.Hayet Abidal a nié toute implication dans l’agression. Mais Maryvonne Caillebotte, la procureure chargée du dossier, a déclaré le 15 novembre au journal Le Monde qu’Éric Abidal “sera entendu prochainement”. Une audition de son épouse n’est pas non plus exclue.Mourad Battikh, l’avocat de Diallo, ne décolère pas sur la façon dont sa cliente a été traitée par la police. “Quand c’est Aminata, ils montrent leurs muscles et ils la mettent en garde à vue”, s’indigne-t-il. “Quand c’est Éric Abidal, une personnalité forte, célèbre, populaire, ils prennent leur temps et procèdent lentement pour être sûrs de ne pas faire d’erreurs.”Mourad Battikh, l’avocat d’Aminata Diallo, dans son bureau à Paris.James Hill pour The New York TimesL’avocat Saïd Harir, engagé pour représenter Kheira Hamraoui.James Hill pour The New York TimesL’équipe féminine du PSG traverse une crise. Son premier match après le scandale a été une raclée (6-1) par son principal rival, Lyon, qui compromet sans doute ses espoirs de conserver le titre de champion de France. Certaines coéquipières de Kheira Hamraoui ont demandé qu’on éloigne leur casier du sien dans les vestiaires. D’autres ont avoué à la direction du club qu’elles auront du mal à reprendre le jeu avec elle. Plusieurs des meilleures joueuses du club veulent simplement passer à autre chose.Pendant ce temps-là, les agresseurs sont toujours en cavale et personne ne sait où cette affaire mènera. Une attaque préméditée comme celle qu’a subie Kheira Hamraoui est passible de cinq ans de prison, selon une porte-parole de la police de Versailles.Aminata Diallo souhaite que justice soit rendue, affirme son avocat. Elle est convaincue de son innocence et déterminée à poursuivre sa carrière au PSG — son contrat prend fin dans six mois. “Sa réputation a été ternie par les journaux du monde entier,” déplore Me Battikh.Kheira Hamraoui aussi veut que justice soit faite, mais elle continue de croire que c’est au sein du club que la vérité verra le jour. Elle l’a dit lors de son dernier entretien avec la police, le 29 novembre. D’après un témoin de sa comparution, les enquêteurs l’ont réinterrogée sur le comportement d’Aminata Diallo dans la voiture et sur la route qu’elle a empruntée.Dans son bureau aux environs des Champs-Élysées, son avocat, Me Harir, affirme qu’il s’agit avant tout de découvrir qui sont les auteurs de l’agression. “On espère que les coupables seront inculpés rapidement,” confirme-t-il.Il ajoute, à propos de Kheira Hamraoui : “Ce qu’elle veut aujourd’hui, c’est que l’on respecte sa vie privée, que l’on respecte son statut de victime.”Romain Molina et Daphné Anglès ont contribué à ce reportage. More

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      P.S.G.'s Aminata Diallo Arrested After Teammate Is Attacked

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      A Paris St.-Germain women’s player was taken into custody by French investigators looking into a violent assault on a teammate who shares her position.The Paris St.-Germain players, champions of France and riding high on a surge of investment in women’s soccer, were in fine spirits as they enjoyed a dinner with club officials last week in a restaurant close to one of the city’s largest parks.Months removed from the squad’s first French title, regulars in Europe’s biggest tournaments and unbeaten in the new season, the team had much to celebrate, and the mood was collegial. As the night out wound down, one of the team’s new signings, Kheira Hamraoui, accepted a ride home from her teammate Aminata Diallo. Car-pooling made sense; both women lived in Chatou, an upscale suburb on the outskirts of Paris, and soon they and a third player were in the car for the half-hour drive home.As the car approached Hamraoui’s house around 10:30 p.m., however, the journey took a menacing turn. Two masked men emerged from the darkness and dragged Hamraoui out of the passenger seat. Then, according to news media reports later confirmed by the French police, the men beat Hamraoui with a metal bar for several minutes, paying particular attention to the part of the body she most needed to play for one of Europe’s most successful women’s soccer teams: her legs.When the beating ended, the men ran off. Diallo, who had been restrained, was apparently unharmed.By Wednesday, she was a suspect in the attack.Early Wednesday morning, the French police arrested the 26-year-old Diallo at her home nearby and confirmed in a statement that her detention was related to Hamraoui’s complaint, though they did not explicitly link Diallo to the assault, and refused to comment for the record. The French sports daily L’Equipe, which first reported the arrest, suggested Diallo may have played a role in the attack on Hamraoui, her rival for playing time in the center of the P.S.G. midfield.Even before then, though, the attack had been the talk of training facilities across Europe, where multimillion-dollar investments in women’s soccer have raised the profile of the sport, its best players and its biggest clubs. That has raised the stakes for players who now see the sport as a viable profession and a potential route to riches for the very best performers through six-figure annual contracts and growing sponsorship opportunities.Hamraoui at a P.S.G. training session in September. She missed a Champions League game on Tuesday because of injuries sustained in last week’s attack. Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty ImagesWhile the club hired additional security for Hamraoui’s worried teammates, the police investigation quietly gathered pace. On Wednesday, the arrest of Diallo shook everyone anew.“Paris St.-Germain is working with the Versailles police to clarify the facts,” the team said in a statement. “The club is paying close attention to the progress of the proceedings and will study what action to take.”Noël Le Graët, the president of the French soccer federation, expressed shock at the arrest of Diallo, who like Hamraoui has played for France’s national team. Diallo was in camp with the team as recently as last month, for a set of World Cup qualifiers. Hamraoui, a veteran of the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, last played for France in 2019, but her career had been revived by a Champions League title with Barcelona last season and an off-season move to P.S.G.“What is suspected is implausible,” Le Graët said. “I know both players. I am appalled if what is mentioned is true. It seems unimaginable.”The incident and the accusations of personal rivalry and professional jealousy immediately evoked memories of the 1994 assault on the figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, who was attacked at that year’s United States championships in a plot orchestrated by the ex-husband of a rival skater, Tonya Harding. Kerrigan was assaulted after a practice session by a man who hit her repeatedly in the legs with a police baton.After Kerrigan was forced to withdraw from the championships because of her injuries, Harding won the competition and earned a place on the 1994 U.S. Olympic team. Kerrigan was later named to the team as well, and several weeks later she won the silver medal at the Lillehammer Games. Harding, who has long denied being involved in the attack but pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, finished eighth.The scandal was revived in 2017 with the release of a fictionalized biopic, “I, Tonya.”P.S.G., backed by the deep pockets of its Qatari owners, said Wednesday that it was continuing to provide its players with added security in the days since the attack, an extra layer of protection that it regularly arranges for its well-known men’s players. Several P.S.G. players have in recent years had their homes robbed — sometimes while family members were inside — while they were away playing matches.“Since Thursday evening the club has taken all necessary measures to guarantee the health, well-being and safety of its entire women’s team,” the P.S.G. statement added.For many in women’s soccer, though, the Hamraoui incident was hard to comprehend. The motivation did not appear to be robbery — the assailants had taken nothing from either of the women, the police said — but rather a single-minded effort to injure a player.Competition for places in the team’s lineup has increased this season after the women’s team finally ended the dominance of its league and continental rival Lyon by winning its first French title. P.S.G. had finished second to Lyon eight times in the previous 10 years. With a domestic title in hand, the team now has a European club title firmly in its sights.Signing Hamraoui, 31, from the European champion Barcelona for her second stint with the club was part of P.S.G.’s efforts to strengthen its team, and to defend its sudden primacy in its ongoing domestic rivalry with Lyon. Both teams have started the new campaign as strong as ever, with each having won its first seven games. P.S.G. has yet to surrender a goal in domestic or European competition.Diallo also returned to Paris this season, after a loan to Atlético Madrid, but has effectively been used as Hamraoui’s understudy. That changed this week when Hamraoui, badly shaken and nursing cuts and bruises — but no broken bones — was unable to play in a Champions League game against Real Madrid.At the time, the club explained her absence as a personal issue. Her replacement in the lineup on Tuesday? Diallo. More